Delfin Lee accuses Binay of P200-M extortion try

Globe Asiatique (GA) owner Delfin Lee said he has been jailed because he rejected the demand of Vice President Jejomar Binay to give him P200 million and implicate former vice president and former Pag-IBIG Fund chairman Noli de Castro in a housing scam.

In a five-page statement read by his lawyer Willy Rivera at yesterday’s hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee chaired by Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, Lee said he had attached an affidavit providing details on his claims.

He said the extortion attempt was coursed through a certain Gerry Limlingan and that both demands were made during Binay’s first months as head of the Home Development Mutual Fund.

“I fully welcome this development which I take as an opportunity, not so much to defend myself or tarnish the reputation of VP Binay, but to reveal the real reasons behind my persecution and incarceration,” Lee said.

“I would have been present today delivering this opening statement were it not for the influence wielded by Vice President Jejomar Binay on Judge Amifaith Fider Reyes, the RTC judge of San Fernando, Pampanga, presiding over the criminal case for the made-up syndicated estafa charge against me,” he added.

Lee said Reyes, whom he accused of “acting like a puppet of Binay,” issued an order at 7 p.m. on April 10 preventing him from attending the Senate hearing.

Huge allowances

Lee said he filed a motion for Reyes’ inhibition from his case, claiming she has been “receiving huge allowances” and was given a Toyota Innova by the city of Makati, where the mayor is the son of the Vice President.

“Judge Reyes should also be investigated in her personal capacity by this august chamber of indirectly preventing the subcommittee of Blue Ribbon from performing its legislative functions by suppressing a witness and resource person like me to attend the hearings thereof in order to protect VP Binay,” Lee said.

“If this happened to me, it can happen to any legitimate businessman or ordinary person. We are all subject to the whims and caprices of VP Binay, especially when he becomes, fate forbid, the president of this country,” he said.

Lee said the syndicated estafa filed against him involved only P18 million.

“If I really owe or defrauded Pag-IBIG Fund of P6.6 billion, why is it that up to now or after five years, no civil case… has been filed against me by Pag-IBIG Fund?” he asked.

Lee noted that Pag-IBIG Fund has never sent him any demand letter for the payment of the alleged P6.6 billion. He also said that when he filed a civil case for specific performance against Pag-IBIG, the amount of the agency’s counterclaim specified only P12 million representing attorney’s fees.

He said the nine cases pending before the Supreme Court against him were appeals filed by Pag-IBIG Fund, “which only means… I won all the cases and Pag-IBIG Fund lost and opted to appeal the cases.”

Xevera Homes

A videotape was played during the hearing showing Lee talking about his achievements in the scam-ridden Xevera Homes, including the churches, schools, municipal hall, eco and theme parks and other amenities.

Lee insisted that he did not get any kickback nor was there a double-sale of Xevera Homes in Mabalacat, Pampanga.

“It is all too easy to understand that I never have to introduce any fake or ghost buyers because our Xevera projects are salable on its own merits, possessing as they do amenities which are unheard of from any other existing subdivision projects,” he said.