(The Philippine Star)
| Updated February 16, 2013 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - The Court of Appeals (CA) Former
Special Tenth Division denied with finality the motion for reconsideration
filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Home Development Mutual Fund
(HDMF or the Pag-IBIG Fund) of its Oct. 5, 2012 decision absolving petitioner
Cristina Sagun, former head of Globe Asiatique documentation department, of the
crime of syndicated estafa together with the other four accused, including
Globe Asiatique President Delfin S. Lee and his son, Dexter.
In connection with the decision, the CA ordered the quashing
or cancelling of the syndicated estafa case filed against the Globe Asiatique
executives by the DOJ before a Pampanga court and the recall of the arrest
warrant issued against them.
Ordered quashed in the Feb. 11, 2013 CA resolution penned by
CA Associate Justice Angelita Gacutan is Criminal Case 18480 pending before the
Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 42 of San Fernando, Pampanga.
Also sought to be recalled is the arrest warrant issued by
San Fernando, Pampanga RTC Branch 42 Judge Maria Amifaith Fider-Reyes against
Sagun as well as that against Lee, his son Dexter, Globe Asiatique accounting
department head Cristina Salagan, and Pag-IBIG lawyer Alex Alvarez.
The appeals court, in dismissing the syndicated estafa case,
explained: “There is only one information for syndicated estafa filed against
all the accused, petitioner included, under Criminal Case 18480 pending before
public respondent RTC. xxx Following the definition of the law, if only less
than five persons are charged of
syndicated estafa, the estafa or swindling cannot be committed by a syndicate.
To hold otherwise would be to deny such persons of the right to bail thus,
violating their constitutional right to due process and liberty.”
“By the same logic, the remaining four accused in Criminal
Case 18480 cannot be tagged as a syndicate in contemplation of Sec. 1, P.D.
1689. This is so because the lack of probable cause to indict petitioner Sagun
for the offense of syndicated estafa and the dismissal of the DOJ Review
Resolution dated Aug. 10, 2011 changes the juridical nature of the offense
charged against petitioner Sagun and the four other accused,” the appellate
court continued.
The resolution said: “In other words, since there would only
now be four accused in the information for syndicated estafa in view of our
disquisition absolving the petitioner, the said Information would be
constitutionally infirm at its core.
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