Senator Sergio Osmeña III on Friday asked prosecutors to include the previous board of the Home Development Mutual Fund led by former Vice President Noli de Castro in the estafa complaint against Globe Asiatique Realty and Holdings Corp.

He said he was disappointed that the National Bureau of Investigation limited the respondents in the P6.6 billion syndicated estafa complaint to Globe Asiatique chief Delfin Lee, his son Delfin Jr., Globe Asiatique officers Christina Sagun and Cristina Salagan, and HDMF employee Alex Alvarez.

Osmeña, chairman of the Senate committee on banks and financial institutions, said Lee could not have received the P6.6 billion in home loans given to thousands of ghost borrowers without the backing of the agency’s board.

“There’s always the bribe giver and the bribe taker, or else how did Delfin Lee get that P6.6 billion without bribing somebody?” Osmeña said. “It certainly would not have been released without shenanigans from the higher ups.”

But Osmeña, who is close to the Lopez family of the ABS-CBN network, where De Castro later returned as news anchor, said he had found no evidence linking De Castro to the scam.

He said the amount involved was so massive that it could not have been paid by the Pag-IBIG Fund without board approval.

“There are several processes, internal rules that you have to follow in any financial organization,” Osmeña said.

“And in finance, it’s even stricter. You have to go through three committee approvals.”

“He [De Castro] was chairman, he had certain responsibilities. Maybe he was absent—we don’t know.” ManilaStandardToday