Binay to NBI, PNP: Get Delfin Lee

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Vice President Jejomar Binay on Friday urged the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police to exert more efforts in finding and arresting housing developer Delfin Lee and five others, who are facing syndicated estafa charges.

“The victims of [Lee’s] Globe Asiatique are demanding justice. I am disappointed that Delfin Lee remains at large a month after the court ordered his arrest,” Binay said in a statement sent from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

He went to Jeddah to convey the condolences of the Philippine government to King Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud on the passing of the Kingdom’s Crown Prince Naif Bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud.

“I hope that our law enforcement agencies will double their efforts to find Lee and his coaccused,” Binay said.

The case is “proof of the Aquino administration’s determination to pursue the campaign against graft and misuse of government funds,” said the vice president, who chairs the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council and the state-run savings agency, Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-Ibig Fund).

Judge Amifaith Fider-Reyes of the Regional Trial Court Branch 42 in this Pampanga capital issued on May 22 the warrant for the arrest of Lee, his son Dexter, and Globe Asiatique executives Christina Sagun, Cristina Salagan and lawyer Alex Alvarez.

“The records would show a huge amount of money that was transferred from the coffers of the Pag-Ibig Fund and released to the Globe Asiatique through a complex scheme involving fraudulent buyers …,” Reyes said in a resolution.

The Pag-Ibig Fund accused the Globe Asiatique officials of using fake borrowers and fake documents to obtain housing loans from the agency.

The loans that the company facilitated for its Xevera projects in Bacolor and Mabalacat towns reached P7.031 billion for 9,951 housing accounts from March 2008 to August 2010 through the special working group program, documents obtained by the Inquirer showed.

Lawyer Willie Rivera, counsel for Lee, said his client was surprised that no hearing was held on a motion to quash the arrest warrant.

“We have a lawful position,” Rivera told the Inquirer. Alvarez, for instance, was a Pag-Ibig Fund employee and should not have been included in the case where the “only allegation against Lee was that he entered into a contract with the agency,” Rivera said.

“Globe Asiatique has paid most of the loans but Pag-Ibig [Fund] refused to accept the payments,” he said, adding that the company had won in a civil case against the government agency in a court in Makati City.

“Pag-Ibig should respect the contract but it’s making it appear we did not comply with it,” he said.  Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon