Lee moved to Pampanga prov’l jail
FROM 5-STAR HOTEL TO PROVINCIAL JAIL. Globe Asiatique president Delfin Lee (in black bulletproof vest) is shown being transferred to the Pampanga provincial jail in the City of San Fernando from an NBI detention center on Monday night. TONETTE T. OREJAS/INQUIRER CENTRAL LUZON
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Philippines—Delfin Lee, a developer of subdivisions and high-rise condominiums, was transferred Monday night to the Pampanga provincial jail that holds close to a thousand inmates, including those charged with attempted murder, illegal possession of drugs and theft.
From the detention center of the National Bureau of Investigation’s Central Luzon regional office here, Lee was moved to the provincial jail at 6 p.m., becoming its 954th detainee.
Police arrested Lee, president of Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corp., at the Hyatt Regency Hotel and Casino in Ermita, Manila, on March 6, almost two years after he had gone into hiding after a judge in Pampanga province issued an arrest warrant against him and four others.
Lee has been charged with syndicated estafa, a nonbailable offense, stemming from some P7 billion worth of fraudulent loans taken out by Globe Asiatique from the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-Ibig Fund), the national shelter and savings agency.
The judge hearing the case against Lee et al. on Monday ordered his transfer from the detention center of the NBI office in Central Luzon to the provincial jail.
Bulletproof vest
The NBI, led by its Central Luzon regional director, Jose Justo Yap, took Lee to the provincial jail using a van. Lee wore a black bulletproof vest when he was ushered into the provincial jail.
Located at the Pampanga capitol compound in Barangay (village) Sto. Niño here, the detention center and jail are just about 100 meters apart.
The sheriff of Pampanga Regional Trial Court Branch 42 carried the transfer order issued by Judge Ma. Amifaith Fider-Reyes, who is hearing the case against Lee and four others.
“We did not fool anyone. I challenge you to check our land titles and other documents,” Lee told reporters when he entered the jail’s first gate.
Candle lighting
A group of Globe Asiatique employees lit candles in front of the provincial jail compound to show support for Lee.
Judge Reyes said there was “no basis” to keep Lee at the NBI jail, according to Assistant State Prosecutor Mark Estepa when interviewed after Lee appeared in court on Monday. The proceedings were closed to the media.
Reyes reset Lee’s arraignment to Friday.
“The judge asked for time to resolve the issues,” Lee’s lawyer, Willie Rivera, told the Inquirer after stepping out of the courtroom.
Estepa said Reyes described as “litigious” the claim of Lee’s lawyers that the syndicated estafa charge had been reduced to simple estafa since three of the five accused, including Lee, had been cleared by a division of the Court of Appeals. Syndicated estafa requires five respondents.
Standing warrant
The Pag-Ibig Fund and the Department of Justice have appealed the appellate court ruling in the Supreme Court.
Reyes maintained that the arrest warrant that she issued in May 2012 was “standing.”
Lee did not give any statement to reporters when he arrived in court at 3:08 p.m. and left at 3:40 p.m. Lee was accompanied by six NBI personnel.
File more cases
At a forum in Mabalacat City on Monday morning, Vice President Jejomar Binay called on home buyers defrauded by Globe Asiatique to file more cases against Lee to keep him in jail.
Binay, chair of the Pag-Ibig Fund and head of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, made the suggestion in reply to a victim who asked about the possibility of Lee’s release.
“You have to file more [syndicated estafa] cases. These will be your assurance to recover. You need to file complaints so that he would have a thousand cases. That way, he cannot post bail,” Binay said in Filipino during a dialogue with victims at Xevera Subdivision in Mabalacat.
Pag-Ibig president Darlene Marie Berberabe told the Inquirer that the agency would be assisted by the NBI when home buyers decide to file complaints against Lee and his company.
In the dialogue, Binay said the arrest warrant issued by Judge Reyes was “standing and valid.”
Berberabe informed the victims that all was not lost although Judge Rolando Mislang of the Pasig City Regional Trial Court had issued injunctions against three syndicated estafa cases against Lee and his cohorts.
“We have brought these all to the Supreme Court,” Berberabe told the crowd. The Pag-Ibig Fund has filed administrative charges against Mislang.
Influential backers
Berberabe said the Pag-Ibig Fund had managed to stop Mislang from ordering the shelter and savings agency to pay Globe Asiatique for the amortization it had collected.
Binay likened the legal fight against Lee as a “roller coaster,” saying that “many influential people” were backing the Chinese-Filipino businessman.
Berberabe said the Pag-Ibig Fund was headed for a difficult recovery of the P7 billion that went to Globe Asiatique.
Bogus buyers
Of the total 9,951 buyers in Xevera Subdivisions in Mabalacat City and Bacolor town, and Sameera Subdivision in Angeles City, 60 percent were bogus, or people paid to sign spurious documents for housing loans.
Of the 4,354 “real borrowers” or those who were purported to have bought units from Globe Asiatique, only 25 percent were paying for their units.
Pressed by the Inquirer to cite the Pag-Ibig Fund’s losses in the Globe Asiatique deals, Berberabe said the agency had yet to assess even the cost of depreciation.
She said her administration had dismissed, after due process, Pag-Ibig Fund officials who conspired with Globe Asiatique—vice president for north Luzon operations Vilma Flores, deputy chief executive officer Sergio Andal, San Fernando branch manager Bayani Garcia, Gloria Arevalo and lawyer Alex Alvarez.
Binay said the settlement of the cases was up to the victims.
“The case is clear. We will not back down for your sake,” Binay said, earning applause from the crowd.
Originally posted: 6:50 pm | Monday, March 10th, 2014
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