Property developer Delfin Lee, his son, and three others were acquitted in an estafa case for insufficiency of evidence.

According to Acting Presiding Judge Joel C. Bantasan of the Third Judicial Region, Branch 42, in the City of San Fernando, Pampanga, “prosecution failed to establish the elements of the crime of estafa under Article 315 (2) (a) of the Revised Penal Code, or any lesser offense necessarily included therein which warrant the dismissal of this criminal action on demurrer.”

The 100-page resolution penned by Judge Bantasan has finally put an end to a saga of a long-drawn legal battle that lasted for more than two and a half decades.

The RTC judge noted that the “three separate Demurrer to Evidence dated July 17, 2025, Demurrer to Evidence dated July 21, 2025, and Demurrer to Evidence dated July 19, 2025, are all granted.”

It said “the case against all the accused, Delfin Sy Lee, Dexter Lim Lee, Christina Iliarte Sagun, Cristina Dela Cruz Salagan, and Atty. Alex Madrina Alvarez, is dismissed for insufficiency of evidence.”

It added that the “resolution of the accused’s separate demurrer only settles this criminal action without prejudice to any civil action between the parties arising from other independent causes of action or sources of obligation.

“On this note, the prosecution and the defense agreed that this Court should take judicial notice of Civil Case No. 10-1120 entitled ‘Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corporation and Delfin Lee v. Home Development Mutual Fund or Pag-ibig, its Board of Trustees and Emma Linda Faria,’ which was the subject of a Summary Judgment before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Makati City.

“Thus, the outcome of said case shall then govern their respective civil claims arising from their contracts, which are separate and independent sources of obligation.”

In 2018, the Supreme Court downgraded the charges against Delfin Lee, who was indicted in the multi-billion housing project of Globe Asiatique in Bacolor town and Mabalacat City.

The downgrading of Lee’s charges by the SC in 2018 from syndicated estafa to simple estafa allowed him to post bail for his provisional liberty.

Aside from the decision of the Court of Appeals and the Makati Regional Trial Court that cleared Lee, the Home Mutual Development Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) and the Office of the Solicitor General several years back had already conceded that there was no such P6.6 billion loss or damage incurred by the government as earlier alleged against Lee.

For his part, Lee said that after more than a decade, this latest verdict finally settled the last remaining straw and put an end to the “fabled and outright lie” about the so-called P6-billion housing peddled by former housing officials.

The court has also ordered the release of cash bonds posted for the liberty of the accused amounting to P120,000 and another P100,000 upon presentation of the official receipts.