Delfin Lee: In the best of times

BACK TO the domain where he once lorded as the housing king.

Not to the triumphant sound of trumpets this time though, but to the sound of police sirens. Not to a welcoming gilded throne but to an iron-barred cell.

Yes, it was not too long ago that everything about Delfin Lee was celebratory, chronicled in the local media – Punto! not excluded – most dutifully.

AUGUST 2008. “Xevera is the best thing that happened to Bacolor, getting richer not just in terms of income but pride and honor as well.” 
So lauded Mayor Romeo Dungca at the turn-over ceremony of the Xevera housing project in Barangay Calbutbut presided over by Vice President Noli De Castro and Globe Asiatique’s Delfin Lee in the presence of Pag-IBIG President-CEO Atty. Miro Quimbo.    
“This project gives a chance to poor people to own their own houses at very beautiful site,” furthered Dungca.  
JANUARY 2009. “This is a phenomenom. I haven’t seen one quite like this in the whole country.” 
Thus said Oriental Mindoro Rep. Rodolfo Valencia, chair of the House of Representatives committee on housing and urban development, as he toured the Xevera housing project in Barangay Tabun, Mabalacat.

“This (Xevera) should be imitated by other developers,” said Valencia, who himself is in the real estate business.  

JANUARY 2009. “Bili na kayo. P5,000 lang a month at walang down payment.”
A jovial President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo called out as she inspected three townhouses at the P6-billion Xevera housing project in Barangay Tabun. She first graced the Lakas-CMD caucus at Holiday Inn Resort-Clark before proceeding to the new P70-million Mabalacat town hall donated by Xevera developer Delfin Lee of Globe Asiatique. 
“They’re beautiful and affordable,” Arroyo told Lee and Subic Clark Alliance for Development Council (SCADC) Chairman Sec. Edgardo  Pamintuan as they went inside the two-storey houses costing about P5,000 a month through Pag-Ibig funds. 
“Ah, simbahan ya pala (oh, it’s a church),” said the beaming President as she took notice of the Sanctuario de San Angelo. 
Arroyo, wearing a red dress, witnessed Mayor Marino “Boking” Morales hand over to Lee a resolution making him “adopted son of Mabalacat for his immense contribution to the development of the first class municipality.” 

APRIL 2009. Subic-Clark Alliance for Development Council (SCADC) Chair Edgardo Pamintuan described Lee as “a silent developer, unassuming and self-effacing.” He added that as a friend, “Lee won’t forget you.” 
Deng Pangilinan, two-time president of the Pampanga Press Club (PPC), said Lee is a “decent man who has genuine heart for the poor.” He was one of the Pampanga mediamen who was able to own a house at Xevera. 
“It’s a dream come true for the press to have houses oftheir own. It took a private individual to make that possible,” said Pangilinan. 
MAY 2009. Education Secretary Jesli Lapus led the turnover of the P100 million integrated school at Xevera housing project in Barangay Tabun, bolstering this town’s commitment to provide free quality education.
Lapus, Xevera Developer Delfin Lee, ABS-CBN executive Gina Lopez and other regional Department of Education (DepEd) officials signed the deed of donation for the school named after Asuncion Lee, mother of Delfin. 
Lapus expressed elation over the “beautiful school,” saying as if “you are in California when you are in Xevera.”
In his speech, Mayor Marino “Boking” Morales said the “school will further make education readily available in our beloved town. He added that “education is the key to success.”   
JUNE 2009. A housing subdivision recently cited by the United Nations and government officials for plotting the template of urban development in the country, was once again mentioned as the number one factor in the 92 percent growth rate of the housing loan take-out of Pag-IBIG Fund in Northern and Central Luzon.
“It’s unprecedented,” said newly appointed Pag-IBIG Fund CEO Jaime Fabiaña during an interview with journalists at the Developers’ Forum of the Pag-IBIG Fund Home Development Mutual Fund held at the Holiday Land function hall in the City of San Fernando.
Fabiaña, who gave the opening remarks during the forum, said the Xevera housing projects in Bacolor and Mabalacat in Pampanga have greatly contributed to the rise in their housing loan takeout. 
“Saan ka makakakita ng subdivision na kumpleto?” Mayroon nang eskuwelahan, munisipyo, palengke at iba pa,” Fabiaña said. 
When asked why Vice President Noli De Castro who is also the chair of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) seems to be favoring Xevera, Fabiaña said the vice president gives his blessings to all housing development projects in the country and not just Xevera. 
He said Pag-IBIG Fund has nearly cleansed its list of erring developers which had earlier caused troubles to house buyers and delinquent payers. 
Fabiaña praised Xevera for a having a “buy-back” program of five years instead of only two years. He explained that Xevera is classified under window number one where processing is done much less because of its proven track-record and reputation…

Arguably, the supreme accolade given to Delfin Lee came from this paper which around 2009 too came out with:

Pampanga’s new patron: San Delfin de Xevera
THERE MAY be no “Delfin” entered as yet in the Calendar of Saints of the Roman Catholic Church but already a San Delfin de Xevera is enshrined in the hearts of many Kapampangans.
Hear Mabalacat Mayor Marino “Boking” Morales speak of Delfin Lee and come to the conclusion that, indeed, the man – Delfin, not Boking – has met the full measure of miracles requisite to a canonization.
“Delfin Lee is the greatest miracle that has ever happened to my town. See how he transformed the howling wilderness of lahar that is Barangay Tabun, into the bustling, cosmopolitan community that is Xevera-Mabalacat,” the mayor said in awe.
“There is inherent goodness in his heart, so manifest in his willingness to invest, not only his material resources, but his very self in uplifting the dignity of his fellowmen, most especially the small people. When you come to think of it, isn’t that what sainthood is all about, the giving of self for others?” 
On Delfin Lee, the very secular, even bohemian Boking suddenly turns theological! Isn’t this a miracle in itself?
On a purely secular level now is Pampanga 1st District Rep. Carmelo “Tarzan” Lazatin speaking: “If there is one person that can help uplift the lives of Filipinos by solving the problem of informal settlers in the country, that will be Delfin Lee.”
The scion of Pampanga’s landed gentry could only gush in admiration: “I am also a developer but with what Delfin Lee did to Xevera, he upped the ante, making it a difficult challenge for us to emulate.”
In his column Etcetera in the weekly Banner, Emilio Sese-Cruz had this to say in the piece headlined “Only Xevera, only Delfin Lee,” to wit: “Delfin Lee never ceases to cause wonder. No, make that awe…This is one guy who has redefined the whole concept, and practice, of land development.
Where other developers simply build houses, Delfin Lee – ALONE – builds communities. Not just communities, mind you, but total communities not simply meeting the needs of the inhabitants, but respecting, if not uplifting, their very dignity.” 
A tough act to follow indeed! 
For no less than the United Nations recognized the Xevera projects as “the template for urban development” and Delfin Lee as “a developer who, through harmonious relationships among the private sector, government sector, and various non-government organizations, has come up with a sustainable project that will help decongest highly-urbanized areas.”
Of deeper appreciation for Delfin Lee’s vision, mission and initiatives than that stated in the UN citation is the fact that he built his templates upon virtual wastelands – Calibutbut in Bacolor which may not have been swamped in the lahar rampages but was not spared from the heavy ashfall of the Mt. Pinatubo eruptions, and now, Tabun in Mabalacat which – true to its Kapampangan name – was indeed buried in lahar. A missionary spirit obtains in Delfin Lee there, treading – so to speak – where even angels feared to tread. So how many missionaries have become saints?    
A church builder, Delfin Lee is too – the place of worship ever at the center of the communities he builds: Sanctuario de San Miguel in Xevera-Bacolor, and Sanctuario de San Angelo in Xevera-Mabalacat, which immediately upon completion of construction are turned over to Mother Church, with deeds of donation to the Archdiocese of San Fernando (Pampanga).
In early medieval times, Delfin Lee’s church-building efforts would have easily merited a cardinal’s hat for him, and a sure beatification.
That’s too far-off an era now, and Delfin Lee would be the first to disavow any claim to holiness.
The accolades heaped upon him, Delfin Lee accepts with all humility, and considers them as challenges for him to do even better: “We feel honored (by the recognition). These will further inspire us to provide optimum services for the betterment of the lives of Filipinos.”        
As a Punto! editorial once concluded: “More than a field of dreams – remember that line, “Build it and they will come”? – Delfin Lee has made that cherished dream of every Filipino – to have a house of his own – come to full realization. And more – a home in a community befitting of human dignity.”
Fittingly then – even unbeatified and uncanonized and therefore without the reverential “San” before his name, Delfin Lee of Xevera is enshrined in every heart in every one of those homes. 
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AND THEN, **it happened. Even saints had feet of clay.

Sic transit gloria mundi. The glory of the world passing in a blinding flash.