Globe Asiatique owner faces life term for syndicated estafa

Real estate magnate Delfin Lee, his son and three associates face life imprisonment after the justice department on Wednesday approved the filing of a syndicated estafa case against them.

The case stems from the allegedly anomalous loans amounting to more than P6.65 billion granted by the Home Development Mutual Fund, also known as the Pagibig Fund, to “ghosts borrowers” who had allegedly bought properties from Lee’s Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corp. housing projects in Pampanga province.

In a review resolution, the Department of Justice’s task force on securities and business scams upgraded the complaint from simple estafa to the more serious case of syndicated estafa, a nonbailable criminal offense.

A panel of state prosecutors had earlier recommended the filing of a simple estafa case against Lee et al but Prosecutor General Claro Arellano directed the task force head, senior deputy state prosecutor Theodore Villanueva, to review the complaint.

Villanueva recommended the filing of a syndicated estafa complaint with no bail.

Aside from Lee, the DOJ also ordered the indictment of Lee’s son Dexter Lee, Globe Asiatique officers Christina Sagun and Cristina Salagan, and Pagibig Fund official Alex Alvarez.

Villanueva also referred to the Office of the Ombudsman for “appropriate investigation” former Pagibig Fund executives Romero Quimbo, Jaime Fabian, Tessie Gonzales, Rafael Albano and Vilma Flores for possible violation of the antigraft law.

Villanueva, however, cleared respondents Ramon Palma Gil, Lerma Vitug, Tintin Fonclara, Geraldine Fonclara, Revelyn Reyes, Rod Macaspac, Marvin Arevalo, Joan Borbon, Christian Cruz, Rodolfo Malabanan, Nannet Haguiling and John Tungol from any liability.