BAGUIO CITY – Thousands of partners of a farm to market ‘paalaga system’s scheme are likely to lose more than P600 million of hard earned money following the alleged non-release of their supposed payouts for more than one and a half month.
However, the number of individuals who had been allegedly hoodwinked in placing their hard earned money to the reported dubious investment scheme is expected to increase if other partners from the different parts of the country will be included.
Terence Tauli, spokesperson of the Baguio and Benguet-based partners, branch managers, team leaders and coordinators of the Farm to market ‘Paalaga System,’ said that the non-release of payouts by their principal, Kono Maximo Salinas, chief executive officer of the Farm to market ‘Paalaga System,’ started last July 15, 2024 to date that compelled them to come out in the open to air their sentiments against the said company official.
He claimed that most of the hoodwinked partners have given Salinas until the first week of September to at least fulfill his promise of refunding their investments which he earlier promised to prevent them from seeking further legal action and appropriate interventions by concerned government agencies so that their hard earned money will be returned.
Under the company’s scheme, interested partners are required to purchase piglets at P5,000 each with a promised 60 percent income after 90 days without doing anything except to place their money as it will be the company that will care for the said piglets and look for their potential buyers.
The spokesperson of the complainants said that based on Salinas’s latest communication to them through their group chat, refunds for their partners are now being allegedly processed that is why they are giving him until the first week of September to make good the said promise for the partners to get back their money.
Last May, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reportedly warned the public from investing in the company’s alleged dubious investment scheme.
Further, the sec issued a cease and desist order (CDO) to the Farm to market ‘Paalaga System’ last August 20, 2024 for reportedly soliciting investments from the public without a secondary license from the regulatory agency.
According to him, the reason for him joining the company for the commitment of Salinas that the latter will not abandon them in case there will be problems that will arise in the future, thus, they will expect that the company official will make good his promise, especially to their business partners who placed their hard earned money to the said reported dubious investment scheme.
Many branch managers, team leaders, coordinators and partners recently gathered in the city to prepare their next steps in trying to deal with the present problem being encountered by the company so that people who invested their hard earned money to the said scheme will be able to get their refund the soonest.
Some team leaders and coordinators from Ifugao and Nueva Vizcaya also spent their time to join the Baguio and Benguet partners in coming up with a united stand to make public their appeal to Salinas to start refunding their hard earned money so that they will be able to wisely use their money for better purposes instead of losing the same through the said scheme that they believed on from the start but eventually ended up as a questionable investment scheme.
Some of the complainants already sought the assistance of investigating agencies such as the National bureau of Investigation (NBI) to facilitate the return of their money through legal means,
The company has yet to issue an official statement on the issues and concerns being raised by the partners who trusted in the benefits of the scheme for them and their families. By Dexter A. See
