Checks or Affidavits in the Mail? That is the Question

Remember Mrs. Lego? She just called yesterday to inform me that hallelujah! she received two mails the other Friday. One mail had a check containing P100,000, representing a time deposit that would have matured last January, 2009, if only it hadn't been overtaken by events.

The other mail was for her daughter's CTD, which contained a letter requiring her personal appearance at the PDIC office, something to do with a Legacy loan that she had incurred. Found out that her CTD was surrendered when she applied for that loan, and when she filed a claim, she had attached the acknowledgment receipt in lieu of the surrendered CTD. PDIC tracked the loan, and have asked the daughter to do an accounting of her monthly payments she had made as loan repayments. Fair enough!

There are some DEADBOL members that are receiving mails, some enclosed with checks but most with affidavits that have to be signed and notarized. A check with PDIC's documentary requirements revealed that affidavits of ownership or co-ownership, as the case may be, are solicited only when signature cards are missing or the signature in the card does not tally with the signature in the claim form. This is a valid requirement if it is not abused. However, we know of one family who received 15 letters, and all contained affidavits: it is statistically impossible that everyone of those accounts had missing signature cards or non-tallying signatures. All members of the family had personally visited the bank, filled up the specimen signature cards, and were old enough that their signatures are not expected to change through the years.

One cannot help but be suspicious that this is just another ploy of PDIC to further delay the payment of valid claims by stringing out the verification process.