JAILBIRD LEE. Housing developer Delfin Lee, charged with syndicated estafa for allegedly tapping close to P7 billion from the Pag-Ibig Fund using bogus buyers, is locked behind bars at the Pampanga provincial jail. TONETTE T. OREJAS/INQUIRER CENTRAL LUZON
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Philippines — Alone and lonely.
This was how housing developer Delfin Lee described his condition after his first night on Monday at the provincial jail in this capital city of Pampanga province.
“I’m OK but it is lonely here,” Lee, replying to a Philippine Daily Inquirer question, said from his prison cell on Tuesday.
From the detention center of the National Bureau of Investigation’s Central Luzon regional office here, the Chinese-Filipino businessman was transferred to the provincial jail at 6 p.m. on Monday on orders by Judge Ma. Amifaith Fider-Reyes, who has been hearing the syndicated estafa case against Lee and four other accused.
Lee, president of Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corp., is alone in a 4-m by 6-m cell, large enough to accommodate 15 inmates or more.
Lee said he has not eaten since Monday night, taking only water and medicines for his diabetes and hypertension.
Edwin Mangaliman, provincial jail warden, said the arrangements for the detention of Lee could change due to “security concerns.”
“The complainants [in the syndicated estafa case] are our province mates. Some of them might vent their anger on him,” Mangaliman told reporters before giving them a tour of the facility.
Lee’s cell is on the first floor of the presidio (old provincial jail) that Pampanga Governor Lilia Pineda had rehabilitated last year.
Visitors have to enter three gates to reach the presidio. The last entrance is narrow, enough only for two persons to pass through.
Three guards secure Lee’s cell. Aside from them, two members of the police’s public safety company monitor the cell from the second floor.
Lee’s cell is lit by an electric bulb. Natural light and air come from a wide steel window and door.
Newly painted in cream, the cell has a toilet and a bathroom, faucet and kitchen sink, wooden bed without a mattress, a table and a chair.
The lone electric fan in the room, which an inmate lent, has no cover and makes a whirring sound, according to Mangaliman.
None of the detainees at the provincial jail have relatives among home buyers who have complained about being defrauded by the Globe Asiatique that took out P7 billion on their behalf from the national shelter and savings agency, Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-Ibig Fund).
“There is no special treatment for Mr. Lee. Pare-parehas lang[Everyone is getting fair treatment.] Walang VIP [No very important person],” Mangaliman said.
He did not grant Lee’s request to bring in a mattress.
Like other detainees, Lee could accept visitors from Wednesday to Sunday, starting at 8 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
“Never can Mr. Lee leave this prison without order from the court,” Mangaliman said.
He said he would ask the provincial administrator to provide a vehicle and the police to secure Lee in going to the Court of Appeals in Metro Manila on Wednesday (March 12).
The appellate court granted the petition for writ of habeas corpus, which Lee’s lawyers filed due to his supposed illegal arrest and detention since March 6 when police arrested him at a hotel in Manila after his almost two years in hiding.
The police, Department of Justice’s state prosecutors, Pag-IBIG Fund officials and Vice President Jejomar Binay said Lee was arrested on a “valid warrant” issued by the Pampanga judge.
Told of the recent order of the Court of Appeals, Lee said: “Ganun ba? E di ilalabas ulit ako bukas (Is that so? Then they will again take me out of prison)?”
As of 2 p.m. on Tuesday, the official custodian of Lee would still be lawyer Jose Justo Yap, NBI regional director in Central Luzon. “We’re praying for his release,” Lee’s lawyer Willie Rivera said in an interview after visiting his client on Tuesday.
Lee, he said, would be up against a very powerful government. “What exists now is the rule of something else…. This issue is no longer about Delfin Lee. It is about respect for the law and the proper administration of justice,” Rivera said.
Rivera was referring to several orders of the appellate court that dismissed the allegations of syndicated estafa against Lee, Globe Asiatique official Christina Sahagun and Pag-Ibig Fund lawyer Alex Alvarez. Government lawyers questioned this in the Supreme Court.
Still, two accused remain in the case — Lee’s son Dexter, Globe Asiatique vice president; and Cristina Salagan, accounting head. A syndicated estafa case needs five respondents.
“This government is blaming Delfin Lee for something he did not do,” Rivera said.
From his cell, Lee said: “I did not fool anyone. I don’t know the complainants and there was no double sale. All titles are kept by my company. Intact, intact.”
On the three pending syndicated estafa cases that the Supreme Court allowed the DOJ to proceed with, Rivera said an accused could not be prosecuted twice if the cases were the same.
“There should only be one information,” he said, adding that these cases were “overtaken by the writ of habeas corpus.”
Originally posted: 6:17 pm | Tuesday, March 11th, 2014
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