Palace on Delfin Lee arrest: It’s a big step

By: 11 years ago

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MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang on Friday lauded the arrest of real estate magnate Delfin Lee, saying it is a “big step” for the administration criticized for its failure to crack down on high-profile fugitives.

“This is a good step at least for government because finally cases can move,” Palace deputy spokesperson Abigail Valte said at a televised press briefing on Friday.

Valte quoted President Benigno Aquino III as having said in Filipino that “Those who hide will eventually be found.”

The spokesperson added that the “efforts used to be concentrated on finding this particular person can now be diverted to other persons that need to be tracked down.”

The administration has been criticized for failing to arrest the country’s “big five” fugitives. Lee, owner of property developer GlobeAsiatique Realty Holdings Corp., is the first of the five to be arrested.

Lee faces charges of allegedly using fictitious members of Pag-Ibig Fund, or Home Development Mutual Fund, to defraud the agency of P7 billion in housing loans to be used in GlobeAsiatique’s projects in Bacolor and Mabalacat towns in Pampanga from 2008 to 2011.

Lee and his associates Christina Sagun, Dexter Lee, Cristina Salagan and Pag-Ibig Fund lawyer Alex Alvarez were issued a hold departure order preventing them to leave the country.

Lee decried that the arrest was illegal since the Court of Appeals cleared him of the case. But the appellate decision is not final and executory due to a pending petition by the justice department before the Supreme Court.

The other big-time fugitives are Army Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, former Palawan Gov. Joel Reyes and his brother, former Coron Mayor Mario Reyes, former Dinagat Island Rep. Ruben Ecleo Jr. and Globe Asiatique developer Delfin Lee.

Called “the butcher” by activists, Palparan went into hiding December 2011 after being ordered arrested over the 2006 abduction of two University of the Philippines students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan.

The Reyes brothers, meanwhile, disappeared in March 2012 over the alleged murder of Palawan broadcaster and environmentalist Gerry Ortega. The Court of Appeals cleared them of the charges in October 2013 but did not quash the arrest warrant.

Ecleo went into hiding before a Cebu city court sentenced him life imprisonment for the killing of his wife in 2002.