GENERAL SANTOS CITY – The Equitable PCIBank here terminated the services of a top-ranking bank executive following complaints of illegal encashment and issuance of bouncing checks amounting to several millions of pesos.
Crisanta M. Jingco, former marketing manager of Equitable PCIBank in the city, along with her husband, Junel, could not be found after prominent businessmen and bank depositors, including World Boxing Council super-featherweight champion Manny Pacquiao, pressed estafa charges against Jingco in court.
Pacquiao told newsmen before his trip to Manila that Jingco failed to pay some P2.8 million of cash she borrowed from his wife Jinky early this year.
“I only realized that she’s a swindler after my lawyer found out in court that she had other estafa charges,” said Pacquiao, who was alarmed after several checks issued by Jingco started to bounce.
Leonara Macalipay, a businesswoman from Sarangani, sought assistance from the local court after Jingco allegedly gypped her by issuing bouncing checks amounting P2.5 million.
Macalipay, assisted by her lawyer, Nilo Flaviano, filed formal complaints before the Regional Trial Court here “to deter other bank officials from doing the same felonious acts.”
She said that the Jingco couple obtained from her some P2.5 million in cash in exchange for different bank checks from PS Bank, Manila Bank and the LandBank. This was from January to March.
“It turned out that these checks were drawn against a closed account,” Macalipay explained.
“Demands were made for the couple to pay but all calls fell on deaf ears,” Macalipay said.
Sources at the Hall of Justice said several complainants had already surfaced and filed charges against Jingco, who was earlier arrested in Baguio City but managed to post bail.
Another bank client who was married to a German had complained that Jingco allegedly refused to facilitate her withdrawing money from their account to buy the medicines and pay the hospital bills of her husband, who was under strict medication. The husband later died in a local hospital.
Jingco was able to put up a gasoline station and a badminton court in Barangay San Isidro but the properties are now subjected to bank repossession after Jingco failed to pay monthly amortization.
When asked how the scam will affect the local banking industry, Eduardo Dionesio, the Security Bank branch manager and chairperson of the Commercial Banking Association of General Santos City, told reporters that the incident could probably affect the bank depositors’ trust toward banks. But he added that the incident was an isolated case.
The lawyer Felix Mesa of the Land Bank of the Philippines legal division said the victims had nothing to worry since the management will likely return their money.
The Manila Times tried to reach Jingco’s side but she was nowhere to be found in the city. Sources said the suspect, together with her family, is believed to have sought asylum with a close relative somewhere in Manila.
