Binay: Someone tried to block Lee’s arrest

Vice President Jejomar Binay. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Vice President Jejomar Binay commended the police and a local court Friday for the arrest of real estate businessman Delfin Lee, saying “certain influential people” he did not identify had attempted to stop the police from bringing in the fugitive.

“Now, I believe that there are still many decent magistrates and officers,” Binay said at a press conference Friday morning.

“There was a long discussion at the headquarters (of the Philippine National Police at Camp Crame) about his arrest. It’s good that the right thing prevailed,” Binay added.

Lee had been wanted by the law since May 2012 for allegedly faking documents to get hold of housing loans totalling P7 billion from the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-Ibig Fund) through his firm GlobeAsiatique for projects in Bacolor and Mabalacat, Pampanga, between 2008 and 2011.

Binay, the government’s so-called housing czar, said certain people of influence had tried to stop the police from taking Lee into custody, shouting at officers while citing a Court of Appeals’ decision last November quashing the case against the longtime fugitive.

He said the arrest warrant issued by Pampanga Regional Trial Court Judge Maria Amifaith Fider-Reyes was still valid pending the outcome of the government’s petition for the Supreme Court to review the appellate court’s order in favor of Lee.

Binay said the appellate court also recently deferred to the Supreme Court on the case as an act of judicial courtesy.

“He cannot be released. What the court has to do now is to issue a commitment order. That’s ministerial…. Delfin Lee must be brought to the provincial jail,” Binay said, noting the case against Lee was not bailable.

The vice president, a lawyer who was in the practice before entering the government service in 1986, cited the Pampanga judge’s sharp eye for legal maneuverings of Lee’s camp as she knew that the Court of Appeals’ order was “not yet final and executory” pending the government’s appeal to the Supreme Court.

“They (unnamed influential people) were trying to influence…. What was a surprise to me was that they went [as far as] going to the police headquarters last night, trying to make the police release him on the allegation that the CA had made a favorable decision,” Binay told reporters. “They are trying to make that a reason to spare Mr. Lee from arrest. But this is simple. Delfin Lee has a pending case involving billions of pesos. If you just hear about the complaints, you will be moved to tears.”

Lee’s alleged scheme involved using the names of Pag-Ibig members and the double sale of housing units to milk money from the state housing agency by making it appear the Pag-ibig members were buying homes in his housing projects.

Binay has been closely watching the case since complaints first surfaced in 2010.