Pag-IBIG Fund rejoinder to ‘Limbo’ column

We again write in connection with the latest article written by your columnist, Mr. Alex Magno, regarding the syndicated estafa case filed by Pag-IBIG Fund against Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corp. (GARHC) and its owner Delfin Lee.

We would like to inform you that, contrary to Mr. Magno’s column entitled “Limbo,” which was printed on Tuesday (October 2), double sale transactions of GARHC are real as shown by the multiple complaints filed by buyers against the developer; former employees of GARHC testified on the schemes employed by Mr. Lee and his cohorts; Mr. Lee has not been absolved of any liability as no court has exonerated him of the fraud charges; and, while the Supreme Court downgraded the charges to simple estafa, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Fund along with the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) both filed their separate Motions for Reconsideration of the Supreme Court’s Decision downgrading the offense against Mr. Delfin S. Lee, Mr. Dexter L. Lee, Ms. Christina I. Sagun, Ms. Cristina DC Salagan and Atty. Alex M. Alvarez from syndicated estafa to simple estafa. Please allow me to explain further.

In his article, Mr. Magno wrote “In 2012, the Pag-IBIG Fund claimed the developer defrauded them to the tune of over P6 billion using fake beneficiaries and selling units to multiple buyers.” We would like to clarify that it was the separate investigations of the DOJ and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) that found evidence that Mr. Lee and his companions were using fake borrowers of the Xevera projects to deceive Pag-IBIG Fund into releasing P6.6 billion in home loans to GARHC. This is the subject of the latest decision of the Supreme Court, which is now undergoing trial before the Regional Trial Court of San Fernando, Pampanga.

While Mr. Magno dismisses the case of Pag-IBIG Fund only as “claims,” please be informed that former employees of GARHC themselves testified in Court against Mr. Lee.

Mr. Magno then continued by writing that “The residents of the two projects, however, attest they are real beneficiaries and that no other claimants have come knocking on their doors with duplicate claims to the homes they occupy.”

Unbeknown to Mr. Magno, Mr. Lee is facing three (3) more syndicated estafa cases which were filed by three (3) groups of victims of double sale by GARHC. About 200 buyers sought the help of the NBI when they discovered that the properties sold to them by GARHC, the same properties they were paying diligently for, were under the names of other people. These are criminal cases lodged as NPS No. XVI-INV-10L-00363 (NBI/Evelyn B. Niebres, et al. vs. Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corp. Delfin Lee, et al.), NPS No. XVI-INV-11 B-00063 (NBI Jennifer Gloria, et al. vs. Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corp. Delfin Lee, et al.), and NPS No. XVI-INV-IIC-00138 (NBI Maria Fatima B. Kanoya, et al. vs. Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corp. Delfin Lee, et al.) and are pending before the DOJ.

While the Supreme Court downgraded the syndicated estafa case filed by Pag-IBIG Fund against Mr. Lee and his co-conspirators, we reiterate that the high court’s ruling is not yet final. As previously mentioned, separate Motions for Reconsideration were filed by the DOJ and the Fund/OGCC, making clear that it is the government, not just Pag-IBIG Fund, who is seeking justice for the victims of Mr. Lee.

And since the fraud cases are still ongoing, Mr. Lee is not a free man as Mr. Magno depicted him to be. Mr. Lee enjoys only temporary liberty as the courts granted him bail.

However, granting bail is not the same as absolving him of his crimes. While he can leave jail, the trial for estafa against Mr. Lee and his group will continue in the Pampanga court.

We recognize that Mr. Magno is merely expressing his opinions in his columns.

However, in pursuit of fairness, we hope that this letter makes its way to the pages of your newspaper to shed light to facts of case at hand. – Atty. KARIN-LEI FRANCO-GARCIA, VP, Public Relations and Information Services Group, Pag-IBIG Fund