Housing developer not off the hook despite CA ruling

MANILA -- Globe Asiatique owner Delfin Lee can still be brought to justice for allegedly using ghost borrowers and fake documents to obtain over P6.5 billion in loans from the Home Mutual Development Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) in 2009.

The development came after the Court of Appeals former special tenth division on February 11 only nullified the warrant of arrest for syndicated estafa against Lee’s co-accused, GA documentation head Cristina Sagun.

Syndicated estafa takes five people acting in conspiracy but with Sagun now being delisted from the charge sheet filed before a Pampanga court, Lee and three others may only be indicted for simple estafa, which is a bailable offense.

The downgraded charges will also allow Lee, who has gone into hiding, to secure temporary liberty while the case is being heard.

The decision penned by Associate Justice Angelita Gacutan quashed the motions for reconsideration filed by the Department of Justice, National Bureau of Investigation and Pag-IBIG.

"[W]e find the matter raised in the said motions to be mere rehash of the previous arguments of the movants which have been sufficiently passed upon by this court in its decision dated October 5, 2012," the decision read.

The CA said it Sagun had no actual knowledge of the fraudulent loans made by GA.

Vice President Jejomar Binay, who supervises Pag-IBIG, said he has directed the agency to confer with the DOJ and the Office of the Solicitor General and immediately file an appeal before the Supreme Court once it receives a copy of the CA decision.

Binay is the chair of the Pag-IBIG Board of Trustees.

“We owe it not only to the victims of Delfin Lee but to all the members of Pag-IBIG to pursue this case. Those who are responsible for this scam should be brought to justice,” he said. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)