ANGELES CITY — Property developer Delfin Lee has renewed his call for the return of P630 million held in escrow by the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) in the wake of the dismissal by a Pampanga regional trial court of a long-running estafa case tied to his housing projects.
In a Feb. 25, 2026 ruling by City of San Fernando Regional Trial Court Branch 42, acting Presiding Judge Joel Bantasan granted a demurrer to evidence and dismissed the estafa case against Lee and four others, citing that the prosecution failed to establish the elements of estafa or any or any lesser offense, effectively acquitting the accused due to insufficient evidence.
Lee, chairman of Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corp. (GA), said the P630 million has been held in escrow with Pag-IBIG for nearly 15 years as a buyback guarantee.
He said that since the agency canceled its collection servicing agreement with his company and the courts have cleared his name, the government has no legal basis to retain the funds.
“If you compute that amount from before 2010 up to now, it would already exceed P1 billion. That would be a big help if it were returned so I could start again,” Lee said during a recent press conference, expressing his plan to help the government resolve its long-standing problem of lack of affordable housing.
“You cannot develop low-cost housing without Pag-IBIG as a partner. They play a pivotal role because they provide affordable financing,” he added, noting that said the return of the escrowed funds is the final requirement for his company to resume its role as a provider of socialized housing.
Backgrounder
The case of estafa against Lee and his companions stemmed from alleged use of “ghost borrowers” to get ₱6.6 billion housing loans from the Home Development Mutual Fund, or Pag-IBIG fund, from 2008 to 2011.
In 2012, the Supreme Court downgraded the charge from syndicated estafa to simple estafa and remanded the case the case for trial court proceedings. The SC ruled that it was Pag-IBIG, not GA, that solicited funds from the public, a key element in prosecuting a syndicated estafa charge.
Lee was arrested in 2014 and detained at the Pampanga Provincial Jail but was allowed by the SC to post bail in 2018.
The RTC found that there was no sufficient evidence that the accused solicited public funds through illegal means or induced Pag-IBIG to release the ₱6.6 billion through fraud.
It also rejected the claims of a “special buyer” scheme in GA’s Xevera projects in Mabalacat City and Bacolor, Pampanga, noting the existence of buyer-borrower records and the lack of proof that the company paid premiums or submitted applications for fictitious borrowers.
It also pointed out that the alleged contractual breaches did not automatically amount to criminal fraud and found no sufficient proof that Alvarez committed estafa in notarizing the documents.
At the same time, the RTC cited Lee’s disclosure and monitoring of about 1,000 questionable accounts. The court described Lee’s actions as “incongruous of a deceitful man deliberately committing fraud against Pag-IBIG.” Punto News Team