IC orders Prime Care Kaagapay shuttered
THE Insurance Commission ( IC) has ordered the closure of preneed company Prime Care Kaagapay Life Plan Inc. and placed it under conservatorship over questions about its compliance with the capitalization requirement.
In a statement on Friday, Insurance Commissioner Dennis Funa said under conservatorship, the regulator would take over the assets of the company to ensure that it would remain focused on providing services and continuing to protect the interests of the company’s planholders.
This is a preventive measure to ensure that the company’s assets would be solely used for legitimate business purposes, he added.
Funa also said Prime Care Kaagapay, headed by chairman Moryula Geru Oliveros and president and chief executive officer Pio Gubatana, applied for a license to sell memorial plans in 2018.
The IC issued a show cause order against Prime Care Kaagapay in line with the ongoing investigation by the regulator into the firm’s compliance with the minimum paid-up capital of P100 million in relation to its application for its license renewal to act as a preneed company.
“Upon investigation, it was discovered that Prime Care Kaagapay has submitted bank certifications to the Commission bearing the same serial number pertaining to the same account, but with different amount of available balances,” the IC chief said.
He pointed out the submission of bank certifications is extremely crucial in serving as proof that a company possesses the required capitalization under Republic Act 9829 or “The Preneed Code of the Philippines.”
Prime Care Kaagapay submitted a bank certification when it applied for an original license to act as a preneed company. However, this turned out to be spurious, as certified by the bank manager of the company’s depository bank, Funa added.
“Upon verification with the depository bank of Prime Care Kaagapay, it was revealed that the bank certification, which was supposed to prove that it has the required P100 million minimum capitalization under the Preneed Code, was spurious,” the IC chief said.
Based on the certification issued by the depository bank, Funa stressed the authentic bank certification actually reflects an outstanding balance below the minimum required paid-up capital for new preneed companies.
“Upon further verification, it was likewise discovered that the said bank account has already been closed,” he added.
That said, Funa emphasized the regulator already made the necessary communication to the depository bank informing it that the bank certification it issued was false.
The IC is looking into all possible cases, both administrative and criminal, against the responsible officers of Prime Care Kaagapay in relation to its misrepresentation on its application for issuance of license and submission of documents which appear to be fake, he added.
“While we cannot disclose the details of the ongoing investigation until its completion, we assure the public that we are carefully looking into all possible violations of the responsible officers and hold them liable,” Funa said.