North Cotabato Governor Emmanuel Piñol said the provincial government will take the lead in the filing of charges against CAP to give justice to plan holders in the province.
“If our national government could do nothing about this problem, your provincial government would lead a legal action to give justice to all CAP plan holders in North Cotabato,” Piñol stressed.
Piñol said the dream of a the plan holders for a better future for their children has vanished and the fate of the plan holders and their children is a question “nobody seems willing to answer. Not the national government. Not the noisy senators who have penchant for investigating even the most trivial of issues. Not congress which is busy with Charter Change.”
He said there were investigations into money-making scam, from the fabled Yamashita treasure to pyramid schemes “but they all pale in comparison to the biggest scam inflicted upon the ordinary Filipino—the CAP scam.”
Piñol said that amid the legal rigmarole involving the CAP and Security and Exchange Commission, the wage earners who gave up part of his;her earnings precisely to ensure the future of their children are now left helpless.
“Let us join hands and work together and bring the bars of justice the heartless that snatched away our dreams. Those who caused you pain and misery by snatching away your cherished dream of a better life for your children should not go unpunished. We start a crusade to seek justice for the wrong inflicted upon us” Piñol assured the crowd.
Filipinas Ramos, North Cotabato CAP Executive vice president told the plan holders their money was still intact in several trust banks such as Metrobank, Allied Bank, Philippine Veterans Bank, Bank of Commerce and Equitable PCI Bank.
“Walang nagduda sa mga trustee banks natin. Ang pera natin na ibinayad noon na allocated ay nandiyan. These are assets. The assets are billions of pesos and this money is invested and working for us,” she said.
Ramos assured the plan holders in North Cotabato that CAP is doing everything in order to pay the plan holders their money.
Jesus Zozobrado, legal counsel for the North Cotabato CAP plan holders, has instructed the claimants to submit the photo copy of their policy number, certificate of full payment and the names of their beneficiaries to be attach in the complain sheet that would be filed in court.
Zozobrado said the claimants from North Cotabato are only a few of among 700,000 CAP plan holders in the entire country.