SURIGAO CITY (MindaNews / 29 Apr) – The Monetary Board placed the Surigaonon Rural Banking Corporation under the receivership of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) by virtue of an MB resolution dated April 23.
As receiver, PDIC took over the bank the following day.
Surigaonon Rural Banking Corporation is a 10-unit rural bank with head offices located at the junction of Rizal and Gemina Streets in this city.
It has another branch in the city, and in the cities of Tacloban, Cagayan de Oro, Davao and Butuan.
Furthermore, it has four branches in Surigao del Norte –in the towns of Dapa, General Luna, Placer and Tubod.
The bank is owned and founded by Alfredo T. Bonpin.
Nathaniel A. Tumbokon, information officer of PDIC, told MindaNews this afternoon that as of December 31, 2014, the rural bank had 13,184 accounts with total deposits P265.3 million. He said total insured deposits amounted to P249.4 million or 94 percent.
He said that in this takeover, all bank records shall be gathered, verified, and validated.
“The state deposit insurer assured depositors that all valid deposits shall be paid up to the maximum deposit insurance coverage of P500,000,” Tumbokon said.
Depositors with valid deposit accounts with balances of P50,000 and below need not file deposit insurance claims, he said, except when they have outstanding obligation with the bank or acted as co-makers of the obligation and have incomplete and/or have not updated their addresses with the bank.
Tumbokon stressed that the PDIC targets to start mailing payments to the depositors by the second week of May. He advised depositors to update their addresses until May 4 using the mailing address update forms to be distributed by PDIC representatives at the bank premises.
He said for depositors that are required to file deposits insurance claims, the PDIC targets to start claims settlement operation for these accounts by the third week of May.
Tumbokon said the PDIC will conduct depositors-borrowers’ fora on May 7-8 to be held at the Surigao City Gymnasium to inform depositors of the requirements and procedures for the filing of deposit insurance claims.
Last October the 17-year-old rural bank suffered a bank run after rumors that it was going bankrupt, triggering mass withdrawals.
Bonpin, who owns majority of the stocks of the bank, could not be reached for comment with this latest development.
Late last year, Bonpin told MindaNews that he infused at least P60 million to save the bank from going bankrupt.
Several depositors who have more than P500,000 deposits are saddened because they don’t know how to recover their hard-earned money.
“I earned it the hard way. But the PDIC can only give us up to P500,000. I have children who are in college, and that savings was supposed to be for their education,” lamented one depositor who asked not to be identified.