SC: Pag-IBIG exec not yet cleared in housing loan scam

Alex Alvarez, a foreclosure manager at the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund), will remain an accused in the P6.6-billion syndicated estafa case filed against property developer and Globe Asiatique president Delfin Lee for now.

This, after the high court granted a request made by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) and the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) for the issuance of a temporary restraining order against a Court of Appeals ruling clearing Alvarez.

"The court resolved to issue a temporary restraining order enjoining the Court of Appeals from implementing and enforcing its decision dated October 3, 2013... (that) set aside Resolutions dated May 22, 2012, and August 22, 2012 issued by Hon. Amifaith S. Fider-Reyes... and that quashed, recalled, and lifted the warrant of arrest that the latter judge issued against petitioner Alex M. Alvarez," said the SC.

Last year, the SC likewise issued a TRO against a CA ruling that also cleared another co-accused in the syndicated estafa case, Globe Asiatique documentation head Christina Sagun.

San Fernando, Pampanga Regional Trial Court Branch 42 is handling the syndicated estafa case.

Lee, Alvarez and Sagun were sued 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.

The CA cleared Sagun in an October 2012 ruling by quashing the syndicated estafa case against Sagun with the Regional Trial Court Branch 42 of San Fernando, Pampanga. The CA also ordered that the arrest warrant issued against her be recalled and lifted.

In its ruling, the CA reiterated that "Sagun's complicity with the acts imputed against the other four accused was not established."

The Department of Justice moved for the CA to reconsider its ruling, but the court denied the motion.

As a result of Sagun being cleared by the CA, her four co-accused, the appeals court said, can no longer be slapped with syndicated estafa charges because under Presidential Decree 1689, a "syndicate" committing estafa should be composed of at least five people.

Apart from Lee, Alvarez and Sagun, the two other accused are GA vice president Dexter Lee and accounting head Cristina Salagan.

The appeals court said that with only four accused, the syndicated estafa case filed against them would be "constitutionally infirm at its core." — JDS, GMA News