Arrest legal, NBI says, amid lobbying by Delfin Lee’s lawyers

Delfin Lee. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The arrest of Delfin Lee, alleged mastermind of a multibillion-peso housing scam, is legal, according to the National Bureau of Investigation.

NBI Director Virgilio Mendez said the bureau would comply with the order of the Court of Appeals to present Lee, president of Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corp., before the court on Wednesday.

Mendez said that the camp of Lee had lobbied for the removal of his name on the five most-wanted list of the bureau, days before he was arrested in a hotel in Ermita, Manila.

“His lawyer visited my office twice and asked that Lee be removed from the list of fugitives, but our position had always been his warrant of arrest was still in force in the absence of an order lifting the warrant of arrest. Thus, the arrest of the police was legal,” Mendez said.

Mendez identified Lee’s lawyer as Gilbert Repizo.

Letters

The NBI head also confirmed a letter obtained by the Inquirer coming from Repizo asking about Lee’s removal from the list.

Repizo, who identified himself as counsel of Globe Asiatique Towers on Edsa in Mandaluyong City, also sent a similar letter to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima. The letter said Lee “is in the process of trying to revive his severely shattered business operations.”

Repizo’s Feb. 14 letter further said: “Lee is making rare public appearances and social functions though unless extremely necessary. More specifically, he will be making efforts to reach out to the proper government agencies to remedy the civil aspect of the questioned transactions with the Pag-Ibig Fund.”

In his letters, the lawyer also said that the Philippine National Police was in the process of removing Lee, with a P2-million bounty for his capture, from the list of fugitives.

Security precautions

Mendez said the NBI would comply with the order to present Lee before the appellate justices on Wednesday.

The NBI director said that a team from the NBI-National Capital Region went to Pampanga to augment the team assigned to escort Lee to Manila.

Mendez said that though there was no direct threat against the alleged swindler, “necessary security precautions will be in place to protect him from his irate victims.”

PNP list

For his part, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas washed his hands of the controversy regarding the arrest of Lee, ordering an investigation of the supposed removal of Lee’s name from the PNP list of wanted persons.

Breaking his silence on the issue, Roxas said it was not his job as interior secretary to delete the names of individuals from the PNP list.

“Whoever ordered the removal of Delfin Lee’s name from the list of those with arrest warrants should be investigated,” Roxas said in a statement.

PNP Director General Alan Purisima also came to the defense of Roxas, saying he never discussed Lee’s case with the interior secretary “in any of our meetings.”

Purisima said Roxas’ role concerned only the approval of the names to be included on the list of wanted persons as recommended by the PNP Reward Valuation Committee.