Homeowners call on SC to act on case involving developer Delfin Lee

Thousands of homeowners from Globe Asiatique (GA) subdivisions in Pampanga urged the Supreme Court to act on the case involving GA developer Delfin Lee expressing fear that they will be dispossessed from their properties.

“It has been five years since the so-called ‘housing-scam’ erupted in Xevera Housing community, a place we believed as a dream community for us and our families,” said a four-page letter to Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno dated Dec. 14 by Xevera Homeowners Associations in Mabalacat and Bacolor, Pampanga.

“Today, we continue to live in uncertainty and suffer the risk of being dispossessed of our homes that we have bought with hard-earned money,” the letter further stated.

Rolando Santos, president of the Xevera Mabalacat Homeowners Association, said they have suffered collateral injuries because of the cases against GA and Delfin Lee.

Santos told the Chief Justice that they opted to go to the Supreme Court after Pag-IBIG Fund rejected their plea to re-establish their loan records and continue payment of amortization.

“Officials of Pag-IBIG told us that they could not do anything on our appeal ‘until the Supreme Court resolves legal issues on the cases our developer is facing,’ even if we know that Pag-IBIG already lost in the civil case before the RTC (regional trial court) and the Court of Appeals where it was Pag-IBIG that was found to be liable,” they stressed.

“Whatever the reason of the Pag-IBIG officials was in their cases against the developer of our subdivision, we are not involved there. If politics or any other motive is behind this, it is just right that we be spared from the issues and further sufferings pending the final disposition of the cases,” they appealed to Sereno in Filipino.

Lee is facing P6.6-billion syndicated estafa case for allegedly defrauding the government of using “ghost” borrowers.

The government said there was double sale when one property has been sold to two buyers.

But Santos said none of them experienced or encountered another person knocking on their doors to claim ownership of their units.

The homeowners said an appeal with the SC was the last resort they saw to resolve their fear and agony of losing the homes they worked hard for.

“It is our sincere desire and prayers, for the Supreme Court to finally provide a chance for the cases involving the alleged housing scam be deliberated as we seek for the earliest resolution of our current predicament,” the group added.

Lee has a pending petition with the high court questioning his arrest, detention and bid to stop the trial for syndicated estafa.

His motion insisted that his current detention lacks basis since the Court of Appeals already nullified the Information (charge sheet) against him for syndicated estafa.

“The lone Information for Syndicated Estafa in Criminal Case No. 18480 has already been quashed by the Court of Appeals in CA G.R. SP No. 121346… and that such lone Information has not yet been revived by the Honorable Supreme Court,” Lee noted in his recent motion.

Thus, he said there is no reason or legal justification for his continued detention as well as the ongoing trial before the Pampanga court.

The motion stated that the prevailing rule on quashed or nullified Information or charge sheet stays quashed unless revived, citing a Supreme Court 2009 decision in the case of Ariel M. Los Banos v. Joel R. Pedro.