A Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Pampanga has dismissed the ₱6.6-billion estafa case against businessman Delfin Lee, his son, and three others for insufficiency of evidence.
In a 100-page resolution dated February 25, 2026, Acting Presiding Judge Joel C. Bantasan of the RTC Third Judicial Region, Branch 42, ruled that “the prosecution failed to establish the elements of the crime of estafa under Article 315 (2)(a) of the Revised Penal Code, or any lesser offense necessarily included therein, which warrants the dismissal of this criminal action on demurrer.”
The court granted three separate demurrers to evidence filed on July 17, 19 and 21, 2025.
“Accordingly, the case against all the accused Delfin Sy Lee, Dexter Lim Lee, Christina Iliarte Sagun, Cristina Dela Cruz Salagan, and Atty. Alex Madrina Alvarez is dismissed for insufficiency of evidence,” the dispositive portion of the resolution stated.
A demurrer to evidence is a motion filed by an accused seeking the dismissal of a case on the ground that the prosecution’s evidence is insufficient. When granted, it is equivalent to an acquittal.
The estafa case stemmed from allegations that Globe Asiatique used “ghost borrowers” to obtain ₱6.6-billion in housing loans from the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) from 2008 to 2011.
In its ruling, the RTC said there was no sufficient evidence to establish that the accused solicited public funds through illegal means or fraudulently induced Pag-IBIG to release the ₱6.6 billion.
The court also noted that alleged contractual breaches did not automatically constitute criminal fraud.
The resolution clarified that it “only settles this criminal action without prejudice to any civil action between the parties arising from other independent causes of action or sources of obligation.”
It cited Civil Case No. 10-1120 entitled “Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corporation and Delfin Lee v. Home Development Mutual Fund or Pag-ibig, its Board of Trustees and Emma Linda Faria,” which was the subject of a summary judgment before the Makati City RTC.
“Thus, the outcome of said case shall then govern their respective civil claims arising from their contracts, which are separate and independent sources of obligation,” the court said.
In 2012, the Supreme Court of the Philippines downgraded the charge against Lee from syndicated estafa to simple estafa and remanded the case to the trial court for further proceedings.
He was later allowed to post bail in 2018.
Lee said that after more than a decade, this latest verdict finally settled the last remaining straw and put an end to the “fabled and outright lie” about the so-called P6-billion housing peddled by former housing officials.
The RTC also ordered the release of the cash bonds posted by the accused in connection with their provisional liberty, amounting to ₱120,000 and ₱100,000, upon presentation of the official receipts.