THE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is finally out of the public eye—even if temporarily—after a series of public hearings on what is now infamously known as “Legacy scam.” The agency that regulates the preneed industry may have been hurt by the controversies that may continue to haunt SEC officials although it was not entirely their fault. Nevertheless, SEC chairman Fe Barin and the four commissioners may have found it necessary for lawyer Jose P. Aquino and Graciano P. Felizmenio to swap posts. Aquino now liaisons with the Philippine Stock Exchange while Felizmenio find himself surrounded by incomplete reports of preneed companies which he should personally analyze for possible hidden numbers.

But it is not this change at the SEC that should concern our legislators. Rather, the taxpayers may have noticed how quick the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) has acted in meeting the claims of depositors of the bankrupt banks that belong to the Legacy group as if these were and are now the only banks that are either under rehabilitation or liquidation. Perhaps, PDIC would be doing the taxpayers some good by disclosing the identities of the depositors of the Legacy banks it had already paid and those who are yet to be paid. In this way, the Filipinos would know where PDIC’s money goes.

What is in store for bank depositors now that the insurance cover for their savings has been doubled to P50,000 from P250,000? How about for banks? How would the increase affect their operations?

In the first place, a question may be raised: Will the P500,000 insurance for bank deposits increase savings awareness among Filipinos? To Teresita Sy-Coson, daughter of businessman Henry Sy, it may mean a slight increase in operating expense but as the owner of BDO Unibank, she may be speaking the truth that the bigger insurance cover for deposits is good only for rural banks. In short, she is saying these small lenders may be more exposed to the risks of bankruptcy than the big commercial and universal banks like BDO. This, in effect, means the depositors of these lenders are the ones who need more protection.

The only problem is nobody in this country goes to jail for bankrupting companies, including banks.

Note. Jesus G. Dureza has declined his election as an independent director of Philex Mining Corp. after he was appointed by President Arroyo as Presidential Adviser for Mindanao, a post which he assumed on July 1. Whatever his reason or reasons are in giving up a directorship in a listed corporation, the public may not know that Dureza, in choosing to be a full-time public official, is foregoing the luxury of sitting in the board of a profitable mining company that paid its directors (as a group) P10.376 million in 2006; P53.902 million in 2007; and P120.408 million in 2008. This year, Philex estimates its board’s pay at P56.4 million, an amount that could also dramatically increase depending on the profitability of the company’s operations.