For the seventh time, Legacy bank owner Celso delos Angeles has eluded arraignment on December 13, 2011 for an estafa case filed by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) way back in July 2010. The December 13, 2011 arraignment did not push through due to the continued confinement of delos Angeles in St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City. The next hearing is yet to be determined.

At the time when PDIC filed the charges with the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Bacolod City, delos Angeles was detained in a hospital in Ormoc City in connection with another case previously filed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). While the accused was in Ormoc, his arraignment was postponed repeatedly because of representations that he was not fit to travel from Ormoc City to Bacolod City. To facilitate the arraignment, records from the RTC Bacolod were transmitted to the RTC Ormoc in June 2011 but the case was raffled only in August 2011. In the same month, however, delos Angeles was transferred to a hospital in Tacloban City upon his request. Several arraignments were also subsequently rescheduled due to his alleged inability to travel from Tacloban City to Ormoc City.

Meanwhile, in connection with the BSP case, delos Angeles was transferred to St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City following a court order issued by Branch 12 of the RTC Ormoc allowing the accused to travel to Metro Manila for medical treatment.

PDIC, the Liquidator of the closed Legacy banks, has accused delos Angeles, together with Alexis Petralba and Atty. Christine A. Cruz-Limpin, of alleged conspiracy to misappropriate the bank’s funds using a farmland in Negros Occidental. Nation Bank, located in Bacolod City, is one of the 12 Legacy banks owned by delos Angeles. The Legacy banks are affiliated banks under the Legacy group, which were almost all simultaneously placed by the Monetary Board under PDIC receivership in December 2008. The other accused, Petralba and Atty. Cruz-Limpin have remained at-large.

The PDIC has paid out a total of P11.54 billion to insured depositors of the 12 Legacy banks as of December 12, 2011. The estimated value of assets recovered so far amounted to only P580.97 million. The PDIC is vigorously pursuing cases against the responsible officials of the Legacy banks to recover the cost of the deposit insurance payouts.

The Legacy owner has been charged with several cases of estafa and syndicated estafa cases in relation to the failed operations of his 12 Legacy banks.