Housing scam victims file raps vs Delfin Lee

MANILA, Philippines - Twenty people yesterday filed criminal charges against detained Globe Asiatique president Delfin Lee before the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

The complainants became emotional as they accused Lee’s company of defrauding them in 2004, when they purchased houses in Santa Barbara, San Mateo, Rizal.

The new complainants filed their complaint before the NBI’s Anti-Graft Division, headed by Rachel Angeles Marfil.

According to the victims, most of them were talked into purchasing houses in the subdivision by Globe Asiatique.

After payments were made and most of them had moved in, another company called to tell them that the houses and lots they were occupying did not belong to Lee’s company.

Due to this, the complainants withheld payments to Lee’s company until the issue was resolved. Months later, however, Lee’s company sent them notices to vacate.

Marfil said the charges might fall under syndicated estafa since they allegedly dealt with double sale of the houses and lots.

These were the same charges that Lee faces for defrauding the Pag-IBIG Fund of P6.6 billion.

Lee is currently detained in Pampanga while the case is pending before the San Fernando, Pampanga regional trial court.

Lee was arrested in a hotel in Manila earlier this month after two years in hiding. He had a P2-million bounty on his head.

Meanwhile, the NBI is also set to file more than 50 syndicated estafa charges against Lee.

Lawyers score DILG

A group of lawyers has taken to task Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II for the botched removal of Lee from the wanted list of the Philippine National Police (PNP) prior to his arrest last March 6.

In a statement, the Philippine Association for the Advancement of Civil Liberties (PAACL) denounced the development and pointed out that Roxas has the final word on any removal from the PNP’s Warrant of Arrest Information System. – With Edu Punay, Cecille Suerte Felipe