Manulife clarifies

Manulife clarifies

It was with great concern that I read your Saturday June 15, 2002 front page headline, "400,000 Manulife clients face uncertainty" as the title, in addition to some incorrect information in the article, it was truly misleading.

As I have tried to make clear to all of our clients, they are not facing uncertainty. In fact, I have stated that despite this unbelievable ruling, we are fully dedicated to doing everything we can to ensure our employees and customers are not negatively affected by the criminal acts that led to the court decision.

Our clients can be certain that Manulife Indonesia remains committed to Indonesia in the long term and they can be certain that Manulife Indonesia is doing all it can to reverse the bankruptcy decision and return to normal operations.

In addition, the article states that there are fears that the value of the policyholders claims exceeds that of AJMI's assets. This is totally incorrect. In fact the Ministry of Finance issued a statement on Friday June 14, 2002 which clearly states that Manulife Indonesia is a solvent company, meaning that its assets are sufficient to cover its liabilities.

This is a challenging time for all of us and it is critical that the information circulating in the media is accurate so that the public, especially the policy holders, are not misled and confused. Manulife Indonesia is appealing the decision to the Supreme Court of Indonesia and is confident it will prevail.

We have received tremendous support from Indonesians, policyholders and even fellow insurance companies in Indonesia during this difficult time and look forward to being able to return to doing business in Indonesia in the near future.

Philip Hampden Smith

President of Asuransi Jiwa Manulife Indonesia