In a forum held Wednesday by the Pampanga Press Club at the Widus Hotel here, Honasan pointed out “serious problems in the judiciary which is politicized.”
“The judiciary is the last bastion of democracy. It unleashes the coercive powers of the state. If there is problem there, where do people turn to?” he asked.
In January last year, jailed Globe Asiatique president Delfin Lee accused the judge who had ordered his arrest of bias against his syndicated estafa case, even as he linked the judge to Binay. Lee was ordered arrested on March 14, 2014 by City of San Fernando, Pampanga Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 42 Judge Amifaith Reyes, who is also a pairing judge in Makati City where Binay had been mayor for years.
Lee was accused of syndicated estafa in his dealings with Home Development Mutual Fund or Pag-IBIG Fund in his Xevera housing projects in Bacolor and Mabalacat in Pampanga.
Lee’s lawyers asked Reyes to inhibit herself from his case, noting that the judge “is likewise handling court duties in Makati City” and had been “receiving monthly allowances and a service vehicle from the Makati City government.”
“Needless to state, the Mayor of Makati City is Junjun Binay, the son of Vice President Jejomar Binay. VP Binay (before his resignation later) is the chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), the umbrella department where private complainant Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF) belongs,” said the inhibition petition filed before the younger Binay was ousted from being mayor on graft charges, and before the elder Binay resigned from the HUDCC to run for president.
Reyes has ignored the inhibition petition. Lee’s arrest two years ago was despite a ruling from the Court of Appeals (CA) lifting her order and asking her to “cease and desist” from proceeding with the cases against Lee.
Honasan cited serious problems in the judiciary in response to a question on whether widespread drugs problem could be solved within six months, as vowed by presidential candidate Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
Supreme Court
This, even as the Supreme Court announced recently it would tackle the petition of Xevera housing residents to resolve the case of Lee amid it’s negative effects on their communities.
In a four page letter to Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno in November last year, Xevera home owners said Lee’s case led to confusion after Pag-IBIG refused to accept their monthly amortizations which, consequently, led to interests on their housing loans.
The Xevera residents complained in an interview that facilities in their subdivisions have significantly deteriorated since supervision of Lee was stopped by Pag-IBIG after he was charged with estafa. At the Xevera project in Mabalacat, rides in an amusement park developed by Lee had to be dismantled and eventually sold as they deteriorated. Electric cables at the big church also donated by Lee to the residents have already been stolen.
“As buyers of homes, we simply relied on a government housing program which we believed was working to serve the interest of the poor. But it seems we were proved wrong. And now we suffer for having placed our trust in the system,” the homeowners’ letter to Sereno said.
The letter was signed by officials of the Xevera homeowners associations, including Rolando Santos, Emmanuel Timpug, Ann Padriga of Xevera Mabalacat, and Antonio Galura, Eduardo Dungao, and Dolores Dimabuyu of Xevera Bacolor.
