A group of Quezon City trial lawyers has taken up the cudgel for the embattled lawyer Zuleika T. Lopez, who had been cited in contempt and ordered detained by the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability for “interference.”
In its statement, the Quezon City Trial Lawyers League, Inc. assailed the House committee for “blatant disregard of the constitutionally enshrined rights to due process and presumption of innocence” of Lopez.
It said that Lopez sought a reconsideration of the contempt citation but her motion remained unacted upon by the House committee.
Lopez, an undersecretary at the Office of the Vice President (OVP), was cited in contempt last Nov. 20, detained at the House of Representatives, and later ordered her transfer to the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW).
“Such persecution made under the guise of lawful exercise of legislative power resulted in the confinement of Atty. Lopez in Veterans Memorial Medical Center,” it said.
In citing Lopez in contempt, the House committee pointed out the Aug. 21, 2024 letter sent by the OVP to the Commission on Audit (COA) requesting the audit agency to disregard a congressional subpoena for the production of audit reports on the OVP’s confidential expenses in the years 2022 and 2023.
The contempt citation was premised on alleged violation of Section 11 (f) of the House of Representatives Rules of Procedure Governing Inquiries in Aid of Legislation which provides, as a ground for contempt, undue interference in the conduct of proceedings therein.
Also, the House Committee cited Lopez’s alleged evasive answers during the probe.
In its statement, the lawyers’ group said “the acts undertaken by the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability against Atty. Lopez are patently tantamount to grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction.”
It said “the letter dated 21 August 2024 issued by the OVP is in response to a subpoena issued by the Committee on Appropriations in relation to budget deliberations being undertaken therein.”
“It bears no relation to the recent legislative probe, and was issued long before the inquiry being undertaken by the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability,” the group also said.
“Further, the allegedly evasive answers made by Atty. Lopez during such probe is the mere opinion of Rep. France Castro. It most certainly was not arrived at after the conduct of formal proceedings which accorded Atty. Lopez the right to be heard, and to refute or explain the allegedly evasive answers she made before the Committee,” it stressed.
The group pointed out that “the events which transpired before the House of Representatives during the legislative inquiry on 20 November 2024, and the grounds cited by Rep. Castro as basis for the order of contempt and detention, is nowhere near novel.”
Citing a Supreme Court decision, it said the High Court “struck down as excessive use of legislative power tantamount to grave abuse of discretion the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s Order dated 10 September 2021 citing Petitioners Linconn Uy Ong and Michael Yang Hong Ming in contempt and ordering their arrest.”
It also said the SC ruled: “It bears underscoring that the purpose of the Committee’s proceedings is to conduct an inquiry or investigation to aid the Senate in crafting relevant legislation, and not to conduct a trial or make an adjudication.”
At the same time, the group stressed that the SC said: “Legislative inquiries do not share the same goals as criminal trial process, and cannot be punitive in the sense that they cannot result in legally binding deprivation of a person’s life, liberty or property.”
It said that “while the Quezon City Trial Lawyers League respects the inherent power of the House of Representatives to cite persons in contempt, as a coercive measure to compel the availability of information necessary in shaping legislation, no respect can be accorded when such power is wielded in an abusive and capricious manner which tends to trample upon the constitutionally mandated rights of persons appearing before said body.”
It then urged the members of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability “to resolve on the merits the Motion for Reconsideration lodged by Atty. Lopez, and to accord her, as well as any and all persons appearing before said body, the right to due process, and the presumption of innocence mandated by the 1987 Constitution.”
The group’s statement was issued by its president lawyer Victor D. Rodriguez, board members lawyers Reynaldo Simpao, Rogelio Adeva Mendoza, Dominic C. M. Solis, Santos “Butch” Catubay, Hernani Favia, Redemberto R. Villanueva, and Ma. Cecilia Clarence M. Tel, also the board secretary and spokesperson.