MANILA -- The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) asked the Supreme Court (SC) to overturn its ruling which downgraded the charges against property developer Delfin Lee and other Globe Asiatique (GA) officials from syndicated estafa to simple estafa.
In a 47-page motion for reconsideration filed on Tuesday, Solicitor General Jose Calida said the High Court should set aside its July 31 ruling downgrading the charges against Lee, GA founder and president Lee; his son and GA executive vice president, Dexter Lee; Christina Sagun, GA documentation department head); Atty. Alex Alvarez (Pag-ibig Fund lawyer and head of foreclosure department); and Christina Salagan (GA accounting/finance department head).
The OSG insisted that “[t]here is probable cause that Delfin, Dexter, Salagan, Sagun, and Alvarez committed the offense of syndicated estafa and should be held for trial therefore.”
“It is respectfully admitted that all the elements of syndicates estafa are present. Delfin, Dexter, Sagun, Salagan, and Atty. Alvarez organized themselves into a syndicate for purposes of carrying out their fraudulent scheme, to the damage and prejudice of [Pag-ibig Fund] and its member-contributors.
“Also, it may not be amiss to point out that nine members of the honorable court (SC) have opined that there is a syndicate in this case,” the motion read.
The OSG explained that since it is the Pag-ibig Fund that was victimized in the syndicated estafa, there was clearly fraud committed by all the accused when they targeted the funds solicited by the government agency from the general public.
It also maintained that Delfin and Dexter Lee sought a Court of Appeals (CA) reversal of the lower court's ruling upholding their indictment and ordered their arrest without first filing a motion for reconsideration before the lower court.
State lawyers pointed out that these petitions were also filed beyond the reglementary period of 60 days from receipt of the assailed court order or ruling since the pleadings were filed with the appellate court more than six months after.
The OSG further pleaded that the challenged SC ruling be modified to state that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is already allowed to resume the preliminary investigation into three more similar complaints against all the accused.
The OSG argued that Lee and company were rightfully indicted for the non-bailable offense, and the Court of Appeals (CA) gravely abused its discretion in granting their petitions challenging the DOJ’s finding of probable cause as well as warrants issued for their arrest.
In its plea which was filed through the OSG, the DOJ questioned the findings of the SC that the elements of syndicated estafa are not there.
"From all the foregoing discussion, with due respect, it is established that all the elements of syndicated estafa are present in this case. Accordingly the DOJ and the People humbly implore the Honorable Court to revisit its own finding that the offense committed was simple estafa," the motion read.
In November 2013, the CA ordered the Pampanga Regional Trial Court (RTC) to terminate the trial of the charges against Lee and recall the arrest warrant against him.
The DOJ subsequently filed a motion for reconsideration, but the CA upheld its ruling, which led state prosecutors to elevate their case before the SC in a petition for certiorari filed on January 2, 2014.
The SC made the ruling after resetting deliberations on the case over 20 times since June 2015.
In a 7-5 vote with two abstentions, the High Court upheld the 2013 CA ruling.
"The Court downgraded the offense that respondent Delfin Lee is charged with from syndicated estafa under Article 315, as amended, to simple estafa. As a consequence, the respondent Lee, who is the accused in the cases below, is entitled to bail as a matter of right," SC Spokesman Theodore Te told reporters as he read the ruling.
The High Court also lifted the temporary restraining order it issued in March 2014 that prevented Lee's release from the jail as ordered by the appellate court.
Lee was indicted for syndicated estafa charges for allegedly defrauding the government of PHP6.6 billion in housing loan proceeds from home buyers, whom investigators later found to be fictitious or had incomplete documents.
But he persistently sought relief from courts and eventually secured a favorable ruling from the special 15th division of the appellate court in November 2013, which lifted the arrest warrant issued against him by the Pampanga Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 42.
The CA had bought Lee's argument the he could no longer be prosecuted for the non-bailable charge of syndicated estafa following the dismissal of charges against two of his co-accused, Alvarez and Sagun.
With the dismissal of the complaint against Alvarez and Sagun, which left Lee and GA vice president Dexter Lee and accounting head Cristina Salagan as three remaining accused, the CA held that the crime of syndicated estafa may no longer apply against the remaining accused since the law requires at least five accused in a syndicated estafa case.
The DOJ and Pag-IBIG questioned the CA's ruling before the SC and secured the TRO.
Lee was arrested on March 6, 2014 by elements of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Task Force Tugis at the lobby of the Hyatt Hotel in Manila by virtue of a warrant of arrest issued by the Pampanga RTC Branch 42, in connection with the Pag-IBIG housing loan scam – in which, Lee allegedly used "ghost borrowers" for GA's housing projects.
Lee is detained at the Pampanga provincial jail for over four years now, while facing criminal cases over the alleged anomalous housing projects of his firm, Globe Asiatique in Pampanga, worth PHP6.6 billion. (PNA)
