House to probe Delfin Lee in P7B housing scam

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.: Green light. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. has given the green light to the majority bloc to conduct a probe of the multibillion-peso housing scam allegedly perpetrated by detained businessman Delfin Lee during the Arroyo administration.

Lee is the owner of Globe Asiatique Holdings Inc., which allegedly used “ghost buyers” to get close to P7 billion in loans from the Pag-Ibig Fund from 2008 to 2011.

Belmonte said the House investigative body should invite not only Lee but also members of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s housing program team led by then Vice President Noli de Castro.

“I approve of the probe because we have to know the guys who helped him (Lee),” said Belmonte, who cited thousands of individuals victimized by the Globe Asiatique-Pag-Ibig housing scam, some of whom were from his district in Quezon City.

Asked if this included De Castro and then Pag-Ibig president Romero Quimbo (currently representative of Marikina), Belmonte said: “Dapat isama na sila lahat (They should all be included).”

De Castro, an anchor of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp.’s prime-time radio and television news programs, was appointed in 2004 chair of the Housing and Urban Development Council and ex-officio head of other housing bodies—Pag-Ibig Fund, National Housing Authority, Home National Home Mortgage and Finance Corp., Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board, and Home Guaranty Corp. (HGC).

Quimbo, a school buddy of Arroyo’s original housing czar Michael Defensor, was Pag-Ibig president from February 2003 to March 2009.

Quimbo admitted that it was under his watch that Globe Asiatique and Pag-Ibig implemented a pilot lending program for Lee’s Xevera subdivision projects in Pampanga province.

But Quimbo said it was after he was “fired” that Lee’s loans from Pag-Ibig ballooned.

Abakada Rep. Jonathan de la Cruz said that the housing scam should be included in the probe being conducted by the House committee on good government and accountability on HGC’s P13.926-billion debt.

De la Cruz said there could have been no scam had HGC not been forced to borrow money that it could not pay just to bankroll Pag-Ibig’s lending spree during the Arroyo administration.

“Mr. Lee could not secure the loan from Pag-Ibig without being guaranteed by HGC. Without the HGC guarantee, there would be no Pag-Ibig loan and there would be no Delfin Lee,” De la Cruz said.