Lee lawyer opposes transfer petition

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Developer Delfin Lee, who is accused of syndicated estafa involving a government housing fund worth P6.6 billion, will spend Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve at the provincial jail here after a court decided to hear a judge’s petition to transfer him to another facility on Jan. 13 next year, according to his counsel.

Executive Judge Divina Luz Aquino-Simbulan of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) is seeking Lee’s transfer to a detention center of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in Barangay Telabastagan, where he will not get special treatment.

Lawyer Willie Rivera, Lee’s counsel, has objected to the transfer. Lee earlier asked the Office of the Court Administrator of the Supreme Court to sanction Simbulan for allegedly interfering with the trial.

Judge Amifaith Fider-Reyes of RTC Branch 42, who is hearing the estafa case, reset the hearing on Simbulan’s petition to next month, Rivera said. He did not explain what prompted the postponement.

Simbulan wrote Reyes on Oct. 29 to report that a small gymnasium had been built next to Lee’s cell on the second floor of the reconstructed prison, where he is the only inmate.

She also cited anonymous letters detailing how Lee had supposedly received special treatment from the installation of an air-conditioning unit in his cell to the presence of a bodyguard who reportedly stays with him from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon