Binay welcomes SC order on Asiatique suit

MANILA, Philippines - Vice President Jejomar Binay welcomed yesterday the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court (SC) preventing the Court of Appeals (CA) from implementing its decision on the damage suit filed by Globe Asiatique against Pag-IBIG Fund.

“I believe strongly that the intent of the damage suit is to harass officials of the (agency) and deflect attention from the real issue: that Globe Asiatique used ghost borrowers and submitted fraudulent documents in order to obtain billions of pesos from Pag-IBIG,” he said.

Binay said the issuance of the TRO is a step forward in his effort to reform the housing sector.

The SC’s First Division, chaired by Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, said in its Dec. 12 order that the CA could not implement its Oct. 7 decision granting the damage suit filed by Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corp. owner Delfin Lee against Pag-IBIG Fund.

Lee filed the damage suit after the Department of Justice filed a P6.65-billion syndicated estafa case against him and four others over alleged anomalous loans granted by Pag-IBIG Fund to ghost borrowers who supposedly bought homes in Globe Asiatique’s Xevera housing project in Mabalacat, Pampanga.

Pag-IBIG elevated the case to the SC when the CA dismissed on a technicality a petition for certiorari filed by the agency to reverse a ruling of the Makati City Regional Trial Court Branch 58.

The Makati court ruled that Pag-IBIG and its board were guilty of breaching the provisions of the memorandum of agreement and the funding commitment agreements that it entered with Globe Asiatique.