READ: AMA Bank responds to PDIC's statement on pending return of seized cash assets
Official Statement of AMA Rural Bank of Mandaluyong, Inc. (AMA Bank) in response to the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (PDIC) Official Statement dated August 29, 2024
As of this date, the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) has not returned in full the cash assets it seized from AMA Bank on Nov. 8, 2019, as well as the loan payments and other income it collected after AMA Bank’s illegal closure.
In a letter dated July 30, 2024 from PDIC’s external counsel to AMA Bank’s external counsel, PDIC requested a meeting ‘to facilitate the execution of the 07 September 2020 Decision of the Court of Appeals’. The same letter stated that the total cash assets, loan collections, and other income of AMA Bank that are in PDIC’s custody amounted to P336,456,282.39. However, PDIC offered to return only the sum of P259,288,330.65.
While there was an earlier attempt on the part of PDIC to return the funds in 2023, the PDIC admitted that such attempt did not materialize. Nonetheless, similar to PDIC’s offer in late July 2024, the amount offered to be returned in 2023 fell way short of the funds that are in PDIC’s custody. The check that PDIC also offered to issue cannot actually be encashed or negotiated.
The almost P80-million difference between the funds in PDIC’s custody and the amount it offered to return through its letter dated July 30, 2024 prompted AMA Bank to file a Motion for Execution on Aug. 9, 2024 to enforce the Decision dated Sept. 7, 2020 of the Court of Appeals (CA), which was earlier affirmed with finality by the Resolutions dated March 1, 2023 and May 28, 2024 of the Supreme Court. In the Motion, AMA Bank prayed that the CA direct PDIC to return AMA Bank’s funds in full, plus legal interest computed from Nov. 8, 2019 to the date of the full return of AMA Bank’s funds.
Pending the CA’s resolution of the Motion for Execution, any meeting between AMA Bank and PDIC should be premised on the complete and prompt return of the cash assets. Expenses allegedly incurred by PDIC after it was enjoined by the CA on November 25, 2019 from proceeding with the takeover and liquidation of AMA Bank are unlawful and contrary to the CA’s clear directives. Hence, AMA Bank urges PDIC to unconditionally comply with the final and executory CA Decision by returning the funds that it unlawfully seized from AMA Bank in full, without deductions, and with legal interest.
AMA Bank wishes to reassure its depositors and creditors that it is taking all legal steps to retrieve its assets in the custody not only of PDIC (which represents merely a small portion of AMA Bank’s funds), but the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and Department of Education as well. The process may take quite longer and will require a bit more patience, but AMA Bank will not take any shortcuts that would undermine the interest of its depositors and creditors.
To finally end this long legal struggle and ease the suffering of AMA Bank’s depositors and creditors, whom BSP and PDIC are mandated to protect, AMA Bank urges BSP and PDIC to comply fully and without delay with the final judgments of the CA and the Supreme Court.
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Disclaimer: This notice was provided by AMA Bank. The views expressed in this statement are those of AMA Bank and do not reflect the opinions of PhilSTAR L!fe, its parent company and affiliates, or its staff.