Pag-IBIG to seek reversal of CA ruling on Globe Asiatique case

MANILA, Philippines - The Pag-IBIG Fund will seek the reversal of the ruling of the Court of Appeals (CA) in dismissing the syndicated estafa case against officials of real property developer Globe Asiatique (GA), Pag-IBIG and Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) Assistant Secretary Danilo Subido said yesterday.

According to Subido, the private complainant in the case against Delfin Lee and other officials of GA has yet to receive a copy of the resolution of the Special Tenth Division of the CA that dismissed the case.

Subido said they would work on a petition to elevate the case before the Supreme Court in coordination with the Department of Justice and the Solicitor General.

The CA last year dismissed the motion for reconsideration filed by the DOJ and the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) of its Oct. 5, 2012 decision absolving the GA officials of the crime of syndicated estafa.

Aside from Lee, the respondents included his son Dexter, Christina Sagun, former head of the GA’s documentation department; Cristina Salagan, GA accounting department head and Pag-IBIG lawyer Alex Alvarez.

The CA ordered the quashing or canceling of the syndicated estafa case filed against the GA executives by the DOJ before a Pampanga court and the recall of the arrest warrant issued against them.

In dismissing the syndicated estafa case, the CA explained there was only one information for syndicated estafa filed against all the accused pending before the Pampanga regional trial court and by definition of the law, “if only less than five persons are charged of syndicated estafa, the estafa or swindling cannot be committed by a syndicate.”

“To hold otherwise would be to deny such persons of the right to bail thus, violating their constitutional right to due process and liberty,” the CA said.

“In other words, since there would only now be four accused in the information for syndicated estafa in view of our disquisition absolving the petitioner, the said information would be constitutionally infirm at its core,” the CA said.

The realty firm was accused obtaining some P6.65-billion worth of housing loans from the government through “ghost borrowers.”

GA reportedly entered into a funding committed agreement with HDMF for its housing project in Mabalacat, Pampanga in 2008.

A year later, Pag-IBIG Fund accused Lee of resorting to fraudulent representations in the effort of convincing the agency to extend loans by claiming that he already has Pag-IBIG members qualified to apply for loans under the agency’s housing loan program.

Lee allegedly made assurances that his company had properly evaluated the respective loan applications prior to endorsing them to Pag-IBIG.