Vice President Jejomar C. Binay said Globe Asiatique (GA) founder Delfin Lee only has himself to blame with regards to the public’s negative perception of him.
Binay made this statement after Delfin Lee’s lawyer, Willie Rivera, intimated that the media is helping portray his client in a bad light.
“The negative image of Delfin Lee is his own fault. He said that he did not defraud his clients but there are thousands of people who say otherwise,” Binay said.
“It is very clear that there is an injustice committed to them as buyers - double sale, falsification of documents, these are all evidence,” he added.
Meanwhile, Binay also clarified that the order of the Court of Appeals (CA) First Division granting the petition for the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus filed by Lee and his camp was only part of the process.
“It's procedural. A petition was filed and the petition shall be heard. That's all. In the course of the hearing of the petition, the body of the petitioner is required to be brought to the court," Binay said.
Binay also said that he is confident the court will not grant the petition to release Delfin Lee.
“We have sufficient evidence to support our case. I do not know the legal basis for the court to issue a writ of habeas corpus. I would just like to reiterate that the decision of the Court of Appeals is not final and executory,” he added.
Binay is the chair of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council and chairman of the Pag-IBIG Fund Board of Trustees.
The Vice President ordered the filing of syndicated estafa charges against Lee and several Globe Asiatique officials in December 2010 after an investigation he ordered revealed that Lee used fake documents and ghost borrowers who supposedly bought homes in Globe Asiatique’s Xevera housing project in Mabalacat, Pampanga, to secure almost P7 billion in loans from Pag-IBIG Fund.
President Benigno S. Aquino III previously set a P2-million reward for information leading to Lee’s arrest.