By Fel V. Maragay

Legacy Group head Celso de los Angeles is accusing some of his critics in Congress of political motives for pinning the blame on him for the collapse of the pre-need companies and banks belonging to his group.

De los Angeles said politics had something to do with the effort of Senator Mar Roxas to portray him as a businessman who enriched himself by fleecing pre-need plan holders, bank depositors and investors of their money.

Roxas, chairman of the committee, is making political capital out of the Legacy business woes, De los Angeles said, citing the fact that Roxas is one of the prospective presidential rivals of Vice President Noli de Castro with whom he (De los Angeles) is identified.

In one of the hearings conducted by the Roxas committee, De los Angeles admitted that he was appointed president of the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. in 2004 upon the recommendation of the vice president.

The government post was allegedly De los Angeles? reward for his financial contributions to the De Castro campaign as vice presidential candidate of the administration in the May 2004 elections.

De los Angeles admitted he was overwhelmed by fear when Roxas, during the last of three Senate hearings, called for the seizure of all his personal assets to be supposedly used to pay the Legacy Group?s liabilities and obligations to its clients and creditors.

?To tell you honestly, I was frightened and I wondered whether we are still in a democracy. Seeing one?s assets being confiscated without due process, that is frightening,? he told Kapihan sa Sulo at Sulo Hotel, Quezon City.

De los Angeles insisted that the Legacy Group?s obligations to all its plan holders, bank depositors and other creditors are backed by trust fund deposited in the banks and real estate assets.