(Home is xevera’s father. Photos by Bong Lacson)
MABALACAT CITY – It moved property developer Delfin Lee to near tears as he was greeted by hundreds of homeowners as well as students of the Xevera housing complex in Barangay Tabun here on Monday.
Just four days after he walked out of the Pampanga Provincial Jail in the City of San Fernando where he was detained for four and half years for alleged syndicated estafa, Lee said he insisted in “coming home” to Xevera to meet with the homeowners against the advised of family and friends who told him to just “lie low” and stay out of the limelight.
Earlier, Lee was welcomed by Mayor Cris Garbo during the regular flag raising ceremony at the city hall, donated by Lee at the Xevera housing complex here.
Shortly afterwards, Lee met with hundreds of homeowners led by the subdivision’s officers and the students of Doňa Asuncion Lee Integrated School, an institution he established at the housing complex named after his mother.
School principal Carmela Cabrera toured Lee to various classrooms where students greeted him while others followed him in going from classroom to classroom.
“If I am a scammer, like what they say, why will I name this school after my mother?” he asked.
At one point, Lee was overwhelmed by the outpouring of love from the elementary students whose united chorus, “Good morning Mr. Delfin Lee. Welcome to…,” was enough to move him close to tears.
Rolando “Chook” Santos, president of Xevera Mabalacat Homeowners Association, praised Lee for his “P1 billion investment at Xevera, with most of the facilities donated for free, to the homeowners and the people of Mabalacat.”
Santos enumerated the cost of the facilities of Xevera donated by Lee starting with the P180 million Doňa Asuncion Integrated School, P60 million San Angelo Church, P80 million supermarket and open wet market, P50 million theme park, P5 million subdivision rotunda, P70 million municipal hall building which is now the City Hall and P30 million furniture cost.
Santos lamented how some media outfits portrayed Xevera as a “ghost town” after Lee was incarcerated when in fact, only a portion of the subdivision was shown in the footage while the rest of the thriving community was ignored.
Lee recalled that 10 years ago, Xevera used to be only lahar with not even one structure existing. In 2008, Lee established Xevera Mabalacat, just a year after establishing Xevera Bacolor.
“Nakakataba po ng puso pag nakita ko ganyan kasaya (My heart is overwhelmed when I see how happy you are),” he said. “I feel it is my moral obligation to see you and also I would like to see how Xevera looks like now. Thank you.”
Lee was detained at the Pampanga provincial jail for four years and a half while facing criminal cases over the alleged anomalous housing projects of his firm, Globe Asiatique worth P6.6 billion.
With the downgrading of his charges, Lee was allowed to post bail for his temporary liberty.
In a 7-5 vote with two abstentions, the High Court dismissed the petition filed in 2014 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) seeking the reversal of a Pampanga Regional Trial Court (RTC) ruling in 2013.
It also lifted the temporary restraining order it issued in March 2014 that prevented Lee’s release from the jail as ordered by the Court of Appeals (CA).
In November 2013, the CA ordered the Pampanga RTC to terminate the trial of the charges against Lee and recall the arrest warrant against him.
But the DOJ and Pag-IBIG filed a temporary restraining order with the SC preventing the CA ruling from being implemented.
