SEC says Suhail Medical Center’s returns will come from new investors
THE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has revoked the registration of Suhail Medical Center, Inc. after it was found to be soliciting investments from the public despite not having the required license from the commission.
Under the Securities Regulation Code, investment contracts should be registered with the commission before these can be sold or offered in the country.
The SEC Enforcement and Investor Protection Department (EIPD) found that the medical center headed by a certain Jesser T. Cordova has been publicly offering and selling securities without a secondary license.
The regulator already issued an advisory against Suhail Medical Center for offering a scheme to co-own the hospital in November last year. An individual may invest P1.06 million to co-own a seat in the hospital or P550,000 for half a seat.
Suhail Medical Center’s scheme promises a prospective investor of a “lifetime revenue,” on top of free laboratories and checkups for co-owners and their relatives.
The SEC EIPD noted that Suhail Medical Center’s promised profits and returns will come from the investments of new investors, instead of the hospital’s operations.
The SEC also said the Department of Health’s Health Facilities and Services Regulatory Bureau records showed that there is no existing licensed health facility under the name of Suhail Medical Center in Calamba Laguna.
“Even a health facility with that name applying for any authorization (license to operate, certificate of accreditation, certificate of registration, or authority to operate a healthy facility) does not exist,” the SEC said in an advisory dated Nov. 16, 2021.
The commission said Suhail Medical Center’s activities “constituted serious misrepresentation as to what it can do, to the great prejudice of or damage to the general public,” which is a ground for the revocation of a corporation’s certificate of registration under Presidential Decree No. 902-A. — Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte
