SC finds Mamba guilty of indirect contempt

Supreme Court. Padre Faura, Manila PHOTO BY J. GERARD SEGUIA

THE Supreme Court (SC) found Cagayan Governor Manuel Mamba and his counsel guilty of indirect contempt and ordered both to pay a fine of P30,000.

In a resolution issued on October 24, 2023 but was only made public Thursday night, February 22, the Supreme Court found Gov. Mamba and Macalintal Law Office guilty of indirect contempt for their failure to justify the filing of a petition for the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) and/or writ of preliminary injunction, and subsequent withdrawal of the same a week after.

Mamba filed the petition before the SC on August 22, 2023, to prevent the implementation of the contempt and detention orders issued by the House Committee on Public Accounts and the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms for his repeated failure to attend the inquiry on alleged illegal expenditures of the Cagayan provincial government during the 2022 campaign period.

However, a week later, after the Court had issued the TRO but before this was served to the parties involved, the Cagayan governor filed a manifestation and motion to withdraw his petition.

The SC immediately issued a resolution requiring Gov. Mamba and his counsel to show cause why they should not be disciplinarily dealt with or held in contempt.

In his response, Mamba claimed that due to circumstances, his counsel opted not to make any manifestation to the Court for lack of material time and perceiving that events were still unfolding.

The Court, however, found the explanation of Mamba and his counsel unsatisfactory.

It said Mamba’s allegations in his petition and his subsequent compliance of the Court’s show cause order were inconsistent with one another.

The Court noted that the Cagayan governor only filed his petition a few days after the orders issued by the House committees were served on him at his residence.

Thus, “[i]t can be reasonably deduced that Gov. Mamba’s change of tune in the Compliance is but a flimsy attempt to absolve himself

from a contempt citation,” said the Court.

The Court further lamented the fact that Gov. Mamba and his counsel sought the Court’s immediate action on their prayer for the issuance of TRO/WPI but they could not show the same modicum of urgency by immediately manifesting to the Court any supervening event that would materially affect the proceedings before the Court.

“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 Court concluded.

In addition to the penalty of fine, the Court gave both Gov. Mamba and Macalintal Law Office a stern warning that a repetition of the same or similar act in the future shall be dealt with more severely.

As to the letter received by the Court from Cagayan 3rd District Rep. Joseph Lara reporting that in multiple instances, Gov. Mamba uttered “unfounded accusations or allegations or words tending to besmirch the [J]udiciary [that] were done willfully and for an illegitimate or improper purpose,” the Court ordered that this be docketed as a separate administrative matter.

It also directed Gov. Mamba 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 on April 29, 2022, May 4, 2022, and May 5, 2022 episodes of the radio program Caygandang Cagayan and during the August 7, 2023 flag ceremony conducted on the Capitol Grounds of the Provincial Government of Cagayan.

The Manila Times has sought a comment from the camp of Gov. Mamba about the Court’s decision but has yet to receive a reply as of posting.