CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – The lawyer of fugitive Globe Asiatique President Delfin Lee has warned law enforcers they would be violating the law against illegal detention if they arrested his client.
“They would be violating an order of the Court of Appeals halting my client’s arrest which was initially ordered by
the regional trial court,” said lawyer Willy Rivera who has temporarily taken over the management of firms owned by Lee since he was ordered arrested on allegations he committed P6.65-billion syndicated estafa last
year.
Rivera said that law enforcers could no longer carry out the arrest on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by
RTC Judge Amifaith Fider- Reyes of the City of San Fernando as this had been superseded by the recent order of the higher Court of Appeals (CA) 15th division which already absolved Lee.
Rivera noted that the CA decision not only cited the RTC for “grave abuse of discretion” in finding probable cause in the estafa case against Lee and his co-accused, but also downright stopped the enforcement of the arrest warrant issued by the lower court.
Rivera said Lee should now be free to go where he wanted, but added he did not know his client’s location.
He could not even say whether Lee had gone abroad. He lamented the position of Justice Sec. Leila de Lima who said the arrest order against Lee still stood despite the CA decision as the department was yet to appeal the CA verdict.
De Lima said the arrest warrant on Lee still stands as the CA’s “resolution has not attained finality yet.” “They (at the Department of Justice) have been known to be defiant of court orders, so what else is new?” Rivera asked.
In dismissing the case last Nov. 7, the CA noted that “for estafa to have been committed by a syndicate, the act must be committed by five or more persons” and that this was not established by the RTC.
“Consequently, the warrant of arrest issued against petitioner (Lee) is hereby quashed, recalled and lifted,” the appellate court said. Vice President Jejomar Binay also told the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF or Pag-IBIG Fund) to ask the CA to reconsider its decision.
Binay earlier ordered the filing of syndicated estafa charges against Lee and several others after an investigation revealed that Lee had used fake documents and ghost borrowers to draw some P7 billion in loans from the housing agency for the Xevera housing project in Mabalacat, Pampanga.
Binay said he was hopeful that the Supreme Court would eventually issue a temporary restraining order against the CA decision. The CA previously dismissed the case filed against Cristina Sagun, former head of Globe Asiatique’s documentation department and Lee’s co-accused in the syndicated estafa case filed by the DOJ, finding no probable cause.
