Delfin Lee, 4 others on hold departure list

Globe Asiatique owner Delfin Lee. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has alerted its personnel in all ports all over the country to prevent fugitive housing developer Delfin Lee and four other coaccused from leaving the country.

BI spokesperson lawyer Ma. Antonette Mangrobang said Lee, his son Dexter and Globe Asiatique officers Christina Sagun and Cristina Salagan, and Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-Ibig Fund) official Alex Alvarez would not be allowed to leave the country following the issuance of a hold departure order (HDO) against them by Pampanga regional trial court (RTC) Branch 43 Judge Amifaith Fider-Reyes.

Mangrobang said the BI received a copy of the HDO last April 2 and they already issued an implementing order based on it.

A check with BI records showed that there were several people bearing the name Delfin Lee, Dexter Lee and Alex Alvarez and it would apparently take time for the government agency to determine which of them were covered by the court’s HDO order.

As for Sagun and Salagan, there was only one person listed for each name in the BI records.

The last entry on Sagun’s passport showed  she left the country on June 25, 2012 but with no record or return.

Salagan last went out of the country on May 8, 2010, but returned on May 11.

Lee and his coaccused are facing charges for fraudulently availing since 2008 of some P7 billion in loans from the state-run Pag-Ibig Fund by allegedly using fake and nonexistent home buyers.

Sagun was head of the documentation department of Globe Asiatique (GA), the housing development company that Lee owned. Son Dexter was the GA vice president. Salagan headed the GA accounting division while Alvarez formerly worked for the Pag-Ibig Fund’s legal unit.