Court keeps Delfin Lee, four others in housing 'scam' from leaving PHL

A Pampanga court has issued a hold departure order against businessman Delfin Lee and four others linked to the multibillion-peso housing scam involving Lee's company, Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corp. Prosecutor General Claro Arellano on Thursday said the order was issued by Judge Amifaith Fider-Reyes of the Pampanga Regional Trial Court Branch 42 last March 25. Copies of the order, however, were released April 3. Apart from Lee, also covered by the travel ban were his son Dexter and Globe Asiatique executives Christina Sagun and Cristina Salagan, and Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) official Alex Alvarez. Arellano said the court "gave more weight to public interest and public welfare than the accused persons' right to travel." Branch 42 is handling the syndicated estafa case against Lee regarding the anomalous loans granted by Pag-IBIG Fund to "ghost borrowers" who supposedly bought homes in Globe Asiatique's Xevera Housing project in Mabalacat, Pampanga. In 2008, Globe Asiatique entered into a Funding Commitment Agreement with Pag-IBIG for the housing project. It allegedly got at least P6.6 billion in housing loan proceeds for home buyers. However, an investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) supposedly showed Lee made false representations and submitted fake documents to secure the loans. From the 9,951 alleged Pag-IBIG borrowers in the Globe Asiatique deals, 1,000 could not be located, 400 denied applying for housing loans, and 200 had incomplete documents for the transaction. Some of the buyers were allegedly fake members of Pag-IBIG, and others were ineligible for membership. Another group of buyers used spurious loan accounts. Lee, who is currently in hiding, had denied any anomaly in the Globe Asiatique transactions. Victory Vice President Jejomar Binay, who chairs Pag-IBIG Fund and Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), sees the hold departure order as “another victory for our kababayans who were defrauded of their hard-earned money.   "This is a very welcome development," he said in a statement. "We are very hopeful that this will advance our demand for Delfin Lee to pay for his crimes.   “We just hope that the hold departure order would aid our law enforcement authorities. We do not want to think that Delfin Lee has evaded justice. Despite the P2 million reward offered by the President for his capture, Lee and his co-accused remain at large," Binay added. Lee was included in the government list of "Big Five Fugitives" along with former Palawan Governor Joel Reyes and his brother Mario Reyes, former General Jovito Palparan, Dinagat Rep. Ruben Ecleo, and New People’s Army (NPA) leaders Benito Tiamzon and Jorge Madlos. On Wednesday, the Court of Appeals issued a temporary restraining order against a Makati court ruling favoring Lee. The appellate court also dismisssed the case against Sagun, although the ruling was not yet final and the Department of Justice indicated it would file a motion for reconsideration. — with Kimberly Jane Tan/KBK/VS, GMA News