The Department of Justice (DOJ) has given 87 respondents to the estafa cases filed by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) 30 days to submit their counter-affidavits. In its preliminary investigation hearing held on January 15 at the Office of the City Prosecutor in Bacolod City, the DOJ said the deadline was inextendible. The next hearing will be conducted on February 15, 2013.

Of the 88 respondents to the case, only 36 appeared during the preliminary investigation. The DOJ is set to issue subpoenas to the 52 other respondents.

The PDIC complaint alleges that the respondents, including spouses Manu and Champa Gidwani, falsified commercial and official documents in order to receive deposit insurance payments for accounts that they misrepresented to own. The complaint further alleges that the respondents filed claims for deposit insurance and received deposit insurance payments from the PDIC when they are not the true owners of the said deposit accounts maintained with the Legacy banks.

This was facilitated when a bank’s branch in the Visayas accepted 683 “crossed checks” issued by PDIC as deposit insurance payments to the respondents. The bank allowed the deposit of the said “crossed checks” to a single account despite PDIC’s specific instruction that the checks should be “For Payees Account Only.”

The PDIC said it will continue to pursue legal cases on bank fraud and unsafe and unsound banking practices to send a strong signal that anomalies, fraud and irregularities committed in banks will not be tolerated by the state deposit insurer and will not go unpunished by the legal system.

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