By PNA and U.S. News Agency / Asian

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said depositors of closed Banco Filipino Savings and Mortgage Bank (BF) will still get their deposits’ insurance even after the resignation of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) chief.

Reports said PDIC President Jose Nograles already tendered his resignation to President Benigno Aquino III, through Purisima, last week.

In a statement Monday, the Finance chief, who is the chairman of PDIC, said he has accepted Nograles’ resignation “and thank him for his invaluable support to the government during his term.”

He assured the banking public, especially those who have deposit accounts in BF, “of the continued safety of your money and the swift and diligent processing of your claims despite this recent development.”

“The PDIC remains committed to service the Filipino people to the best of its ability,” he added.

Nograles is already on leave but his resignation will take effect April 30, 2011.

Meanwhile, Nograles, in a text message, said “policy differences” with Purisima is the main reason for his resignation.

“Such differences, unfortunately, have proved to be irreconcilable and consequently have led to dysfunctional relationships in the Corporation,” he added.

Nograles was appointed for a six-year term as PDIC chief by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in January 2008.

He is a senior executive vice president of the Land Bank of the Philippines’ (Landbank) and heads the operations and corporate services before his appointment to the state-deposit insurance agency.

It is under his term that the maximum deposit insurance in the country was raised to P500,000 from P250,000 previously, which took effect in June 2009, as part of the government’s move to strengthen the public’s confidence in the domestic banking system.

Meanwhile, PDIC said it has paid, through Postal Money Order (PMO), around P59 million deposit insurance to 33,440 BF depositors who have account balances of P5,000 and below and has no outstanding loan and with complete addresses in the bank records.

“Mailing of payments is done continuously and completion of payment for said accounts is expected by May this year,” the agency said in a statement.

The state-deposit insurer said it will also start paying BF depositors with account balances of up to P10,000 without the depositors filing deposit insurance claims.

PDIC earlier raised to P10,000 the account balances that do not need to be filed with insurance claims. The increase applies to accounts of banks closed after March 17, 2011.

Relatively, BF depositors were given up to May 13, 2011 to file insurance claims for deposit accounts worth more than P10,000. Insurance claims forms were distributed during the depositors forums that PDIC held nationwide a few weeks ago.

PDIC targets to complete the payment of insurance claims by July this year.