By Roy Pelovello

LAWMAKERS yesterday joined calls for all five commissioners of the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Chairman Fe Barin, to resign over the Legacy Group mess.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Senator Mar Roxas first made the call after a witness at the Senate hearings testified that Commissioner Jesus Martinez had received lavish gifts including a house and lot for his son from the Legacy Group, which is being investigated for the collapse of its banks and pre-need companies.

Malaca?ang has ordered Martinez, who is in charge of regulating pre-need companies, to go on leave while he is being investigated by the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission.

Members of the House of Representatives yesterday agreed that all five commissioners should resign.

?Even without the Martinez scandal, Fe Barin and the other SEC commissioners should have resigned already for allowing another CAP and Pacific Plans incident to happen right under their noses,? Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casi?o said.

He was referring to two large pre-need companies that collapsed in 2005, leaving their plan holders nothing.

Barin has resisted all calls to step down, insisting that she and the other commissioners have done nothing wrong.

?It is our feeling right now that we don?t see any reason for us to come out and resign,? she said.

Casi?o disagreed.

?Their failure in preventing Legacy Plans from victimizing thousands is unforgivable given their previous failures,? he said.

?The Martinez expos? merely seals their fate. They should all resign for their failure to protect the public interest and for allowing a crook like Martinez to operate in their midst.?

Nueva Vizcaya Rep. Carlos Padilla and Bukidnon Rep. Teofisto Guingona III shared this view.

?If I were them, out of delicadeza [propriety], I would resign from my post,? Padilla said.

Added Guingona: ?This administration should learn to operate with some delicadeza. If Barin does not have any of that, [President] Gloria Macapagal Arroyo should at least feign it and ask her appointee to step down.?

But Makati Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr. said only Martinez should resign and be stripped of his retirement benefits.

In a statement yesterday, the Jesus is Lord Movement acknowledged that its leader, evangelist Eddie Villanueva, had endorsed Martinez to the commissioner?s post, but said his behavior after getting the job was entirely his responsibility.

The movement also denied that Martinez was ever a member, adding moves to connect them to the scandal were politically motivated.

On Tuesday, Citizen?s Battle Against Corruption party-list Rep. Joel Villanueva, son of the movement?s leader, admitted that in 2001, Martinez was one of Cibac?s nominees for a congressional seat, but said they had not heard from him since.

The Presidential Anti-Graft Commission yesterday said it had begun its preliminary investigation of Martinez, and a day before he was set to retire.

Commission chief Constancia de Guzman said her agency had ?enough plausible leads and evidence? to start investigating Martinez, who is accused of receiving at least P4.67 million in bribes from the Legacy Group.

?The case was docketed Tuesday. We have gathered enough evidence to proceed,? he said.

The commission has up to 90 days to finish its investigation, but De Guzman said they would probably need less time.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Martinez stood to lose his retirement benefits for serving as commissioner for the last seven years if he was guilty of administrative charges.

A Justice Department panel of prosecutors yesterday said they would also speed up the resolution of the cases filed against Legacy chief Celso de los Angeles and its other officials.

At the Senate, Roxas said his office was gathering complaints from the plan holders and bank depositors of the Legacy Group to file a class action suit against De los Angeles.

Roxas, chairman of the committee on trade and commerce, said the suit would be costly as it entailed the payment of a huge filing fee. He urged justice authorities to waive the filing fee for the poor complainants.

De los Angeles got more bad news yesterday after the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. filed syndicated estafa charges against him, claiming he and other Legacy Group officials had siphoned off funds from his Rural Bank of Carmen using bogus loan accounts worth P16.85 million. With Joyce Pangco Pa?ares, Rey E. Requejo and Fel V. Maragay