Makati court rules in favor of Globe Asiatique

MANILA, Philippines - The Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 58 ruled that the failure of defendants Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF), better known as Pag-IBIG Fund, and the individual members of its board of trustees to file a motion for reconsideration of the resolution dated Jan. 30, 2012 in Civil Case No. 10-1120 has rendered its summary judgment final, executory, and immutable as to defendant HDMF.

In a seven-page resolution dated Dec. 11, 2012, the Makati court also denied for lack of merit the motions for reconsideration individually filed by defendants Emma Linda Faria and Marie Darlene Berberabe, CEO and president of the Pag-IBIG Fund, who were likewise sued in their personal capacity for malice and evident bad faith.

In a related case, the Court of Appeals First Division denied on Oct. 12, 2012 the petition for certiorari filed by Berberabe in CA-G.R. SP. No. 123387 entitled “Atty. Marie Darlene Berberabe vs. Hon. Eugene C. Paras, RTC Makati, Globe Asiatique and Delfin Lee.”

Globe Asiatique said these clear findings and final decision of the Makati court together with the decision of the Court of Appeals First Division sustaining the orders of the Makati RTC Branch 58 legally support the earlier decision of the CA 10th Division in C.A. G.R. SP No. 121346 wherein petitioner Christina Sagun, one of Globe Asiatique’s officials, was exonerated of the crime of syndicated estafa.

Globe Asiatique claims the foregoing factually and legally conclusive decisions of the Makati RTC and the CA First Division as well as the decision of the CA 10th Division which ruled that the exoneration of petitioner Sagun has legal implication on the information for syndicated estafa against the other accused -- Delfin Lee, Dexter Lee, Cristina Salagan and HDMF notary public Atty. Alex Alvarez - have rendered practically baseless the finding of probable cause for syndicated estafa against all of them by Judge Amifaith Fider-Reyes of Pampanga RTC Branch 42.