Asset garnishment order against LBC lifted
COURIER and remittance service firm LBC group has obtained a court order lifting the P1.8-billion asset attachment and garnishment initiated by the state-controlled Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. as part of a collection claim on behalf of a defunct LBC banking affiliate.
The Regional Trial Court of Makati City issued the order to lift and set aside the writ of preliminary attachment issued on Dec. 7, 2015 and the garnishment made pursuant thereto after defendants delivered a counter-bond, LBC Express Holdings Inc. disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
“The order to lift and set aside the preliminary attachment directs the sheriff of the court to deliver to the defendants all properties previously garnished pursuant to the writ of preliminary attachment,” the disclosure said.
“The counter-bond delivered by the defendants shall stand in place of the properties so released and shall serve as security to satisfy any final judgment in the case.”
The disclosure said that in compliance with such order, the sheriff of branch 143 of the RTC of Makati had served the lifting of garnishment upon the main offices of the following banks: Landbank of the Philippines, BDO Unibank, Inc., Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation and Philippine National Bank.
The defendants to this case are: LBC Express Inc., LBC Development Corp., LBC Properties, Inc., Juan Carlos Araneta, Santiago G. Araneta, Fernando G. Araneta, Monica G. Araneta, Carlos Araneta, Ma. Eliza G. Berenguer, Ofelia F. Cuevas, Apolonia L. Ilio, Joseph Jeffrey Rodriguez and Arlan T. Jurado.
The Araneta family-led LBC Express is a subsidiary of LBC Express Holdings while LBC Development Corp. is its parent company.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas ordered the closure of LBC Development Bank in 2011, citing huge advances to LBC Express as part of the reason why the thrift bank had become insolvent. The PDIC, as the mandated receiver of the defunct bank, is thus now running after such “unpaid service fees” estimated at P1.8 billion.
