The Department of Justice on Wednesday said controversial Globe Asiatique president Delfin Lee will remain in jail unless the Supreme Court decision downgrading the charges against him from syndicated estafa to simple estafa, a bailable offense, becomes final and executory.
Acting Prosecutor General Richard Anthony Fadullon, head of the DoJ’s National Prosecution Service, said that Lee remains in detention at the Pampanga provincial jail after the DoJ filed a motion for reconsideration on the SC ruling.
“He [Lee] cannot be granted bail just yet since the Supreme Court decision is not yet final and executory,” he said, adding that the controversial property developer could only post bail once the Court denies DoJ’s appeal with finality.
Fadullon said that in its motion for reconsideration, the DoJ had sought that the SC reverse the Court of Appeals decision in 2013 that downgraded the cases against Lee from syndicated estafa to simple estafa, for allegedly defrauding the government of P6.6 billion in housing loan proceeds using “ghost borrowers.”
“We believe that it is a syndicated estafa case which is non-bailable case, so he [Lee] should not be allowed to post bail,” the Prosecutor General said.
In its 47-page motion for reconsideration, the DoJ through Solicitor General Jose Calida, asked the SC to reverse its ruling and reinstate the syndicated estafa cases against Lee and company.
The DOJ argued that Lee and four other accused – GA vice president Dexter Lee, accounting head Cristina Salagan, documentation head Christina Sagun and Pag-IBIG Fund foreclosure manager Alex Alvarez – “clearly committed fraud.”
“From all the foregoing discussion, with due respect, it is established that all the elements of syndicated estafa are present in this case. Accordingly the DOJ and the People humbly implore the Honorable Court to revisit its own finding that the offense committed was simple estafa,” the motion said.
The DOJ questioned the finding of the SC that the second and third elements of syndicated estafa – the act was committed by a syndicate and which resulted in misappropriation of money – in the cases against Lee.
“Delfin, Dexter, Sagun, Salagan and Alvarez organized themselves into a syndicate for purposes of carrying out their fraudulent scheme, to the damage and prejudice of HMDF (Home Development Mutual Fund) and its member-contributors. The fact that Atty. Alvarez was not connected with GA either by employment or ownership cannot operate to separate him from his co-conspirators so as to remove the group from the application of Presidential Decree No. 1689 which requires that the syndicate must be composed of at least five persons,” the DOJ said.
Last July, the High Court voted 7-5 with two abstentions to affirm the CA ruling and dismiss the petition filed in 2014 by DOJ and HMDF
The SC also lifted the temporary restraining order it issued in March 2014 that prevented Lee’s release from the jail as ordered by the appellate court.
Lee was indicted for syndicated estafa charges for allegedly defrauding the government of P6.6 billion in housing loan proceeds for home buyers, whom investigators later found to be fictitious or had incomplete documents.
However, he persistently sought relief from the courts and eventually secured a favorable ruling from the special 15th division of the appellate court in November 2013, which lifted the arrest warrant issued against him by the Pampanga regional trial court branch 42.
The CA had bought Lee’s argument that he could no longer be prosecuted for the non-bailable charge of syndicated estafa following the dismissal of charges against two of his co-accused, Alvarez and Sagun.
With the dismissal of the complaint against Alvarez and Sagun, which left Lee, Dexter and Salagan as the remaining accused, the CA held that the crime of syndicated estafa may no longer apply against the remaining accused since the law requires at least five accused in a syndicated estafa case.
The DOJ and Pag-IBIG questioned the CA’s ruling before the SC and secured the TRO.
Lee was arrested on March 6, 2014 by elements of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Task Force Tugis at the lobby of the Hyatt Hotel in Manila by virtue of a warrant of arrest issued by the Pampanga RTC Branch 42 in connection with the Pag-IBIG housing loan scam where Lee allegedly used “ghost borrowers” for GA’s housing projects.
