Delfin Lee to ‘tell all’ at Senate hearing

MANILA, Philippines—Real estate developer Delfin Lee will attend a Senate committee hearing this week and answer all questions regarding the allegations that he, in connivance with housing officials, had defrauded the Pag-Ibig Fund (Home Mutual Development Fund) of P6.6 billion using hundreds of ghost buyers of his company, Globe Asiatique’s flagship project in Pampanga, according to his lawyer.

Lawyer Willie Rivera also claimed that Lee had been framed and singled out by state housing authorities for being on the wrong side of the political fence. The realtor, he said, has links to Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, a bitter rival of Vice President Jejomar Binay who is chair of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) which controls the Pag-Ibig Fund.

“Korina (Sanchez) is a close friend of Lee’s daughter, Divine, and that is a fact,” said Rivera. Divine Lee was one of the bridesmaids in the October 2009 wedding of Sanchez, a news anchor, to Roxas, then a presidential candidate. Roxas gave way to Sen. Benigno Aquino III and ran for vice president instead but lost to Binay.

“In the interest of justice and fair play, I humbly submit myself to the Senate investigation to finally reveal in public the real and truthful circumstances surrounding the cases and continuing allegations against my integrity and business conduct”, said Lee in a statement released by his lawyer.

The Senate committee on urban planning, housing and resettlement chaired by Sen. JV Ejercito is scheduled to hold its first hearing on the alleged Pag-Ibig scam this week.

In his statement, Lee said he would use the hearing not as a venue for his defense but “to shed light on the truth” and “edify” the lawmakers on loopholes in the system.

“Lee will never invoke his constitutional right against self-incrimination in the Senate hearing because he has nothing to hide, provided the questions are relevant and material to the issues at hand,” said Rivera.

Lee has maintained that “the alleged manipulations and collusions that have placed (our) home buyers at a disadvantage were completely ill-conceived and misleading.”

Rivera said that while Lee availed of P6.6 billion in financing from Pag-Ibig in 2009, there were 204 other real estate developers accredited by HMDF—like Ayala Land, Vista Land and the Moldex Group—that availed themselves of bigger loans under the same express funding window developed by then Pag-Ibig president and now Marikina Rep. Romero Quimbo.

Rivera said Quimbo imposed more stringent requirements on Globe Asiatique when it availed of the P6.6 billion for the Pampanga projects.

But why has Quimbo remained silent on his legacy project? “He’s probably scared of being dragged into the controversy. Who knows what kind of story they’d concoct to destroy him just like what they did to us,” said Rivera. Quimbo was appointed by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as Pag-Ibig head from February 2003 to March 2009. He has since become a Liberal Party member and was given the coveted post of ways and means committee by the ruling House majority bloc.

Globe Asiatique’s rapid growth came to a halt after the 2010 elections, when a new management took over Pag-Ibig Fund and refused to honor the contracts signed by the previous administration, Rivera said.

“They talked about mismanagement where there was none. This blunder is apparently the result of the hidden agenda of the officers of HDMF in running after Delfin Lee and Globe Asiatique. If HDMF only followed religiously and in good faith the contracts that it prepared, and which were later on signed by Globe Asiatique—the same contracts signed by 205 real estate developers accredited by HDMF—none of these issues would have cropped up,” said Rivera.

Pag-Ibig president Darlene Berberabe denied targeting Lee for political gain as she noted that Globe Asiatique was first investigated in mid-2010, or “way before any talk of politics in 2016.”

She said Pag-Ibig, the DOJ and COA all evaluated independently the evidence on hand, which pointed to same conclusion of fraud by Lee and his cohorts. She said that even the RTC judge and Supreme Court had issued a TRO on all the cases that Lee had temporarily won in the Court of Appeals.

“With so many eyes, ears and brains pointing to the same conclusion, I do not see how they can claim there is no basis,” said Berberabe.

Rivera argued that if Pag-Ibig canceled the contracts of the other 204 real estate developers “you will see that the same controversies of double sale, fictitious buyers and damage to HDMF will crop up and these legitimate businessmen will also be destroyed and will be subjected to the same inconvenience and oppression that Lee and Globe Asiatique are suffering now.”