MANILA (Updated) -- Police and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents were ordered by the Court of Appeals (CA) to stop looking for housing developer Delfin Lee of Globe Asiatique after the tribunal lifted the arrest warrant against him.
In a 29-page decision, the CA Special 15th Division said Judge Amifaith Fider-Reyes of the Pampanga Regional Trial Court branch 42 committed grave abuse of discretion for issuing resolutions dated May 22, 2012 and August 22, 2012.
The resolutions ordered the arrest of Lee and Dexter Lee and their co-accused upon finding sufficient evidence to try them for syndicated estafa, a non-bailable offense.
But after reviewing the resolutions, the CA found on November 7 that “there was no mention that the acts constituting estafa were done by five or more persons.”
The CA said the judge’s findings only stated that syndicated estafa “could only have been accomplished by and through the sustained supervision and action in concert of a group of persons for the attainment of the same criminal objective."
"It goes without saying that public respondent (judge) did not take it upon herself to determine, based on evidence," the decision read.
Vice President Jejomar Binay directed the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF or Pag-Ibig Fund) to appeal the decision before the Supreme Court (SC).
“We will pursue our fight for justice for the ordinary Filipino workers. We will exhaust all legal remedies to ensure that the homeowners who were defrauded by Globe Asiatique and victimized by Mr. Lee will be given justice,” said Binay, chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) and chair of the Pag-Ibig Fund Board of Trustees.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, meanwhile, opted to seek the CA’s reconsideration first before elevating the case to the SC. She said the arrest warrant is still valid since the resolution is not yet final.
President Benigno Aquino III earlier offered P2-million reward for Lee’s capture.
The CA also previously junked the case against Lee’s co-accused Cristina Sagun, former head of GA’s documentation department, for lack of probable cause.
In clearing Sagun, the appellate court said she can only be liable for simple negligence since she was never privy to the use of ghost borrowers and fake documents to obtain over P6.5 billion in loans from Pag-Ibig Fund in 2009.
The SC, however, stopped the implementation of the CA decision last April. (Virgil B. Lopez/Sunnex)