March 13, 2009

I am pleased to announce that the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) will start distribution of numbered claim forms for all deposit accounts in the following 12 closed Legacy-affiliated banks on March 18, 2009:

1. Rural Bank of Parañaque, Inc.
2. Bank of East Asia (Bangko Rural de Bisayas [Minglanilla, Cebu]), Inc.
3. Pilipino Rural Bank, Inc.
4. Rural Bank of Carmen (Cebu), Inc.
5. Philippine Countryside Rural Bank
6. Rural Bank of DARBCI, Inc.
7. San Pablo City Development Bank
8. First Interstate Bank (Rural Bank of Kananga, Leyte), Inc.
9. Dynamic Bank
10. Rural Bank of San Jose (Batangas), Inc.
11. Nation Bank
12. Rural Bank of Bais (Negros Oriental), Inc.

We at PDIC are doing our best to process claims for deposit insurance as soon as possible, given the constraints we face.

We are prevented from speedy evaluation by missing/incomplete bank records. We have sent demand letters to officers and employees of the Legacy-affiliated banks to turn over the documents to us because we need the documents to process claims. We have not heard from them todate.

We ask for sobriety, cooperation and patience as we go through the back-breaking work of evaluating about 135,000 accounts and sorting incomplete bank documents which are in disarray. Rest assured that we will pay all valid claims. Depositors whose accounts are in order should not have any cause for worry.

We ask for your understanding because while PDIC aims to pay claims as soon as possible, we have to follow standard operating procedures in making deposit insurance payments. These procedures are the same for all closed bank-depositors claiming for deposit insurance. Payments will be made from PDIC’s Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) which is a government fund, and must therefore be disbursed with care.

Let me assure you that we are exerting all efforts to process claims as quickly as we can given the problems we have been encountering.

(Sgd.) IMELDA S. SINGZON
Executive Vice-President, Division II
In-Charge of Claims, Receivership and Liquidation Operations