Dismissal of case vs Delfin Lee on alleged housing scam pushed

The government’s P6.6-billion syndicated estafa case against property developer Delfin Lee and other executives of Globe Asiatique (GA) should be dismissed, Lee’s lawyer Rony Garay said Friday.

“The P6-billion housing scam is fabled and an outright lie. That’s why Lee’s continued detention in Pampanga jail is a clear case of injustice,” he told reporters following the filing of urgent motion for resolution of cases involving Lee and GA.

“This is exactly the reason why we are pushing for the immediate resolution of the petitions before the Supreme Court questioning the Court of Appeals (CA) decisions that dismissed Lee’s syndicated estafa case and quashed the arrest order issued by the trial court against our client,” the lawyer said.

They said that aside from the decision of the Court of Appeals and the Makati City Regional Trial Court that cleared Lee, the  Home Mutual Development Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) and Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) already conceded that there was no such P6.6-billion loss or damage incurred by the government as earlier alleged against Lee.

“No less than HDMF’s President and CEO Darlene Berberabe admitted during the Senate Blue Ribbon Sub-Committee hearing on April 13, 2015 that respondent (accused) Delfin Lee representing Globe Asiatique did not obtain any P6.6 billion loan from petitioner Pag-Ibig Fund,” Garay said.

“On the contrary, it is Globe Asiatique, as further admitted by Berberabe, that has receivables of P600 million from petitioner HDMF,  more than sufficient to pay off or cover the alleged P18 million claim of the 28 other complainants of petitioner HDMF, according to Senator Antonio Trillanes IV,” he recalled.

As early as April 2013, Garay said HDMF could not justify during the hearings why its counterclaim against Lee was only for P12 million instead of  P6.6 billion in damages.

The lawyer said the OSG also confirmed this admission of Pag-IBIG when it “admitted in its comment dated March 19, 2013 to the petition for certiorari in CA GR SP No. 127553, that there is no such thing as P6.6 billion damage to petitioner HDMF.”

“This is also the reason why after more than six years, respondents (Lee) and Globe Asiatique have not received to date any demand letter or summons in any pending civil case, for the payment of this fabled P6.6 billion damage allegedly”, Garay said, adding that there can be no damage on the part of HDMF for P6.6 billion because it is fully secured by the collateral town house units at the Xevera Bacolor and Mabalacat Township Projects.

Garay said the Supreme Court should affirm the rulings of both the appeals court and the Makati Court in favor of Lee and dismiss the petitions of HMDF and Department of Justice justifying the syndicated estafa case filed against the GA executives before the Pampanga RTC.