UNA accuses Trillanes of lawyering for scam suspect Delfin Lee

The United Nationalist Alliance on Monday accused Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV of “lawyering” for detained real estate developer Delfin Lee at the Senate hearing on corruption allegations against Vice President Jejomar Binay despite the businessman’s alleged involvement in a scheme to dupe the Pag-IBIG Fund of some P6 billion.

 

UNA interim president and Navotas City Rep. Toby Tiangco said Lee “appeared like a saint” when Trillanes described him at the Senate blue ribbon committee’s hearing Monday, with nary a mention of the syndicated estafa case filed against the founder and president of real estate firm Globe Asiatique.

 

“May amnesia ba si Senator Trillanes? Nakalimutan ba niya na libu-libong tao ang niloko nitong si Delfin Lee? Sa halip na taumbayan ang kampihan nya, si Delfin Lee pa ang dinidepensa ni Trillanes?” he asked.

 

Tiangco said Trillanes seems to have forgotten that Binay had provided the P2-million reward for Lee’s capture, while it was the National Bureau of Investigation that discovered the ghost borrowers Lee allegedly used to defraud the government of some P6.6 billion in housing loan proceeds.

 

NBI investigators later found out the supposed home buyers who had contracted the loans were mostly fictitious or had incomplete documents.

 

Lee: Charge came after refusing to fund Binay's VP run

 

In 2008, Globe Asiatique entered into a Funding Commitment Agreement with Pag-IBIG, also known as the Home Development Mutual Fund, involving a housing project, under which the company supposedly received at least P6.6 billion in housing loan proceeds for home buyers.

 

But Lee’s lawyer, Willie Revilla, claimed the syndicated estafa charge against his client resulted from his refusal to shell out millions to fund Binay’s vice presidential bid in 2010.

 

In a sworn affidavit that Rivera read during the hearing, Lee also claimed Binay, through the latter's alleged bagman Gerry Limlingan, had attempted to extort P200 million from him in exchange for dropping the syndicated estafa case.

 

Rivera said this was apart from the incident in which Lee was allegedly asked to fund the campaign of Binay.

 

Tiangco said Trillanes has resorted to playing multiple roles in the Senate hearing just to malign the vice president.

 

“[Sen. Trillanes is] now a prosecutor, judge and executioner and those he has maligned cannot defend themselves because he will bully them into silence,” he said. “[His actions are] all about inventing lies to paint a negative picture of VP Binay.”

 

Trillanes alleges bribery at Court of Appeals

 

Also on Monday, Trillanes accused two Court of Appeals justices of receiving bribes of P25 million each in exchange for favorable rulings on a suspension order issued by the Office of the Ombudsman against Makati Mayor Junjun Binay, the vice president's son.

 

CA justices Jose Reyes Jr. and Francisco Acosta have denied the bribery allegations and, in separate statements, have accused Trillanes of trying to intimidate the members of the judiciary.

 

"The TRO (Temporary Restraining Order) and preliminary injunction were issued by the 6th Division of the Court of Appeals, acting as a collegiate body, after observing a meticulous, impartial and judicious evaluation of prevailing laws, jurisprudence and evidence presented by the parties," Reyes said. — JDS, GMA News