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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider SC fines Cagayan Gov Mamba, lawyer P30,000 each for indirect contempt

SC fines Cagayan Gov Mamba, lawyer P30,000 each for indirect contempt

Published Feb 23, 2024 07:09 am

After the Supreme Court (SC) has found Cagayan Gov. Manuel N. Mamba and his lawyer guilty of indirect contempt and ordered to pay a fine of P30,000 each, the provincial executive is facing anew another contempt citation.

The first indirect contempt citation against Mamba and his counsel, the Macalintal Law Office, involved the filing of a petition on the arrest order issued by the House of Representatives on Aug. 17, 2023 against the governor for his non-appearance in hearings of the House Committee on Public Accounts and the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms.

On Aug. 22, 2023, Mamba, represented by the Macalintal Law Office, filed a petition before the SC against the arrest order and pleaded for the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO).  On Aug. 24, 2023, the SC acted on the petition and issued a TRO against the arrest order.

On Aug. 29, 2023, Mamba, also thru the Macalintal Law Office, filed a motion to withdraw the petition filed on Aug. 22, 2023.

However, the SC said that Mamba and his counsel did not promptly inform the High Tribunal of the supervening events like governor’s surrender that rendered nugatory the TRO it had issued.

Thus, the SC ordered Mamba and his lawyer to explain why they should not be held in contempt of court “for improper conduct tending, directly or indirectly, to impede, obstruct, or degrade the administration of justice.”

In a resolution citing Mamba and his lawyer in indirect contempt of court, the SC found their explanation unsatisfactory. It said Mamba’s allegations in his petition and his subsequent compliance were inconsistent with one another.

The SC lamented that while Mamba and his lawyer sought the court’s immediate action on their plea for TRO, they failed to show the same modicum of urgency by immediately manifesting to the court any supervening event that would materially affect the proceedings on the petition.

Reiterating its previous ruling, the SC said “there should be a greater awareness on the part of litigants that the time of the judiciary, much more so of the Court, is too valuable to be wasted or frittered away.”

It said that under Rule 71, Section 3(c) of the Rules of Court, punishable as indirect contempt are any abuse or unlawful interference with the processes or proceedings of a court not constituting direct contempt. Also, it pointed out that Section 3(d) of the same Rules considers as indirect contempt any improper conduct tending, directly or indirectly to impede, obstruct, or degrade the administration of justice.

“After a punctilious review of the records, numerous news reports that the Court takes judicial notice of, and Gov. Mamba and Macalintal Law Office’s assertions in their Compliance…the Court is convinced that Gov. Mamba and Macalintal Law Office should be cited in indirect contempt under Rule 71, Section 3(c) and (d) of the Rules of Court,” the SC ruled.

The SC also ruled that Mamba’s petition against the arrest order is withdrawn, closed, and terminated.  The TRO previously issued was ordered withdrawn.

At the same time, the SC warned Mamba that a repetition of the same offense would be dealt with more severely.

On the second contempt citation Mamba is facing, the SC directed the governor to show cause within a non-extendible period of 30 days from notice why he should not be held in indirect contempt of court for uttering purportedly contemptuous statements against the Judiciary in the April 29, 2022, May 4, 2022, and May 5, 2022 episodes of the radio program “Caygandang Cagayan” and during the Aug. 7, 2023 flag ceremony conducted on the provincial capitol grounds.

It also directed regional trial court (RTC) Judges Marivic A. Cacatian-Beltran and Jezarene C. Aquino -- who were reportedly the subjects of Mamba’s “tirades” to submit their respective comments on the same issue within 30 days from notice.

 

 

 

 

 

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