MANILA, Philippines — The House committee on banks and financial intermediaries has scheduled for Thursday a hearing on the collapse of the Legacy Group's rural banks, with group owner Celso de los Angeles summoned to explain the closure of the banks.

House members have agreed to look into the real cause of the collapse last year of several rural banks before proceeding with deliberations on a proposal to double the insurance coverage of bank deposits to P500,000 per depositor from P250,000, said Representative Jaime Lopez of Manila, the committee chairman.

"We have to make necessary amendments to prevent future closures that may have been caused by selfish schemes,'' said Lopez, referring to reports that the Legacy Group lured thousands of depositors with a pyramid-type deposit scheme that promised to double clients’ money.

Lopez has filed House Resolution 957 to investigate the 15 rural banks that folded up last year, including 13 linked to the Legacy Group.

Representative Teodoro Locsin of Makati City has described the failed banks saga as the "Celso de los Angeles Legacy scam.''

"He milked it, thinking it was a cow,” Locsin said of De los Angeles and the Legacy Group.

He added that “the mafia” in Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. “took a dive for Celso de los Angeles.''

House Speaker Prospero Nograles is also calling for an investigation of the Legacy Group’s shuttered pre-need firms.

In a letter to Lopez as committee head, Nograles assailed the "total disregard of the welfare of the policy holders by the officers of Legacy plans as well as the failure of concerned regulatory agencies to undertake monitoring and other previous measures to avert the collapse.'' With editing by INQUIRER.net