Bringing her 73-year-old mother and nie-year-old daughter with her, Gemma, 45, on Tuesday went to the main office of Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co. (Philamlife) to withdraw the deposits of her family from the PhilAm Savings Bank and terminate the insurance policy of her mother.

She got worried after learning that the company was being sold. “We don’t just pick money anywhere. We work hard for it,” Gemma, a call center agent, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, inside the Philamlife Building on United Nations Avenue in Manila.

She had a change of heart, however, after Leo Tan, Philamlife vice president for the Life Profit Center Department, assured her that the company remained stable.

Gemma is just one of the many policyholders who stormed the Philamlife main office on Tuesday, worried about the educational plans of their children, life insurance plans of their parents and their own bank deposits.

But the company appeared prepared for the swarm of customers: It deployed several employees on the waiting area to approach customers as soon as they come in, saying there is no reason to worry.

The employees, pulled out from their regular jobs since Monday, were also distributing a one-page statement of the company, telling policy holders “your policies are safe and fully backed by the financial strength of Philamlife.”

“We told all our employees they should convince our policy holders to stay with Philamlife,” said Maria Carmen Asinas, first vice president of branch operations, who was also in the waiting area Tuesday afternoon.

Housewife Lei, 33, was also at the main office, planning to terminate the educational plan she got for her six-year-old daughter. The policy is almost fully paid but the news of the sale worries her and her husband, a family driver.

“We really worked hard for this for our daughter,” Lei said, referring to the educational plan. But the Philamlife employee who assisted her advised her to continue the plan. She was told that if she terminated the plan, she would only get half of the P60,000 she had paid.

Lei phoned her husband and asked what she would do: They decided to just continue the policy.

Gemma said that when she learned that Philamlife was for sale, she wanted to rush to the Philamlife office right away. “I panicked. I wanted to go here immediately,” she said.

Three employees immediately surrounded her when she showed up at the main office Tuesday afternoon. They listened to her as she enumerated her concerns, her voice loud and worried.

“If Philamlife is earning well, why is it being sold?” Gemma asked the three employees, who took turns in answering her barrage of questions.

“We are No. 1 in the industry,” one employee said. “There is no need to panic,” another said.

There were more than 10 employees in corporate attires approaching customers at the waiting area usually reserved for insurance claims and applications.

Insurance agents also rushed to the main office Tuesday as they themselves received a flurry of calls and text messages from their clients.

John Guno, 53, an accountant providing consultancy services to cooperatives, said three of his clients came to his house in Rodriguez town, outside Manila, in the morning, worried about their insurance plans.