Vice President Jejomar C. Binay hailed Thursday the decision of the Court of Appeals (CA) to allow the filing of syndicated estafa charges against Delfin Lee and his co-accused.
Binay, Chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) and the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF or Pag-IBIG Fund), called the decision to allow the Department of Justice (DoJ) to file charges a “welcome development.”
“Now we can finally continue our quest to seek justice for the ordinary workers defrauded by Globe Asiatique,” Binay said.
The Vice President said the CA decision also proved that Judge Rolando Mislang of Pasig Regional Trial Court Branch 167 “erred in issuing the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO)” which effectively blocked the filing of charges against Lee.
“I laud the CA for not allowing one person to stand in the way of justice for the thousands victimized by Globe Asiatique and the fulfillment of President Aquino's promise to end corruption. It is a campaign that we are pursuing vigorously in the housing sector,” Binay said.
The DoJ had previously recommended the filing of syndicated estafa charges against Lee and several others after an investigation ordered by Binay revealed that GA used "ghost borrowers" and fake documents to obtain over P6.5 billion in loans from Pag-IBIG.
Mislang issued a preliminary injunction stopping the DoJ from filing the information for syndicated estafa against Lee, his son Dexter and three others in September last year.
Acting on the orders of the Vice President, the Pag-Ibig Fund filed an administrative complaint with the Supreme Court against Mislang for preventing the DoJ from indicting Lee.
The complaint accused Mislang of gross ignorance of the law, grave misconduct and knowingly rendering an unjust order in issuing two TROs in favor of Lee.
According to the complaint, Mislang demonstrated bad faith and malice when he issued the TRO despite even when the DoJ Panel of Prosecutors had already previously denied a similar Petition to Suspend Proceedings filed by Lee on Jan. 27 last year.
Pag-IBIG also alleged that Mislang issued the TRO "based on mere unsubstantiated allegations of Lee” and that he "acted prematurely" in issuing the TRO considering that Lee had already admitted on Aug. 26 that he has yet to receive a copy of the Review Resolution on Aug. 10 indicting him and several others.
Meanwhile, Binay said they will continue to “vigilantly monitor” the progress of the case against Lee.
“We will continue to vigilantly monitor the case and assist the Department of Justice in whatever possible way to ensure that Delfin Lee and his co-accused will face justice,” he concluded.