Cagayan Governor Manuel Mamba and his lawyers have been ordered to explain why they should not be disciplined for allegedly abusing court processes when they filed a petition before the Supreme Court (SC), only to withdraw the petition later on.
The SC Public Information Office said the SC decided Tuesday to “require petitioner Manuel M. Mamba and his counsels, i.e., Macalintal Law Office, to show cause why they should not be disciplinarily dealt with or held in contempt for acts that constitute ‘abuse of or any unlawful interference with the processes or proceedings of a court not constituting direct contempt’ and/or ‘improper conduct tending, directly or indirectly, to impede, obstruct, or degrade the administration of justice’ within ten (10) days from notice.”
Mamba has been detained for failing to attend a Congressional investigation into alleged illegal spending of his provincial government in the 2022 elections.
The House Committee on Public Accounts and the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms cited Mamba for contempt and ordered that he be detained in the chamber.
He applied for and successfully secured a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the SC against the House orders on August 24.
But a few hours before the SC issued a TRO, he voluntarily surrendered to the House of Representatives where he was detained.
He was later freed by the House after signing an undertaking that he would apologize for his absence, attend future hearings, and no longer discuss the House resolution outside of Congress.
From SC’s perspective, Mamba’s actions “effectively rendered nugatory” or worthless the TRO SC issued when he voluntarily surrendered without immediately informing the high court about the supervening event.
He later filed a manifestation and motion to withdraw his petition.
SC required his and his lawyers explanation before acting on the motion.
Under Rule 71 of the Rules of Court, indirect contempt committed against a regional trial court or a court of equivalent or higher rank may be punished with a fine of up to P30,000 or imprisonment not exceeding 6 months, or both.
Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez welcomed on Thursday Mamba’s voluntary surrender a week after a joint House panel cited the governor for contempt, owing to his repeated non-attendance at an inquiry of the House Committees on Public Accounts and on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms.
Romualdez said “Governor Mamba’s choice to voluntarily surrender is a commendable stride in safeguarding the integrity of our democratic institutions.” “It signifies his readiness to collaborate with the House’s proceedings and underscores a steadfast commitment to the fundamental principles of accountability and transparency that form the cornerstone of our democracy,” the Speaker said. During a joint hearing held on August 17, members of the two committees decided to cite Mamba for contempt. Cagayan Provincial Information Officer Rogelio Sending was also cited for contempt and detained even if he was present at the hearing.
The inquiry sought to conduct a special audit or fraud audit investigation of the Cagayan provincial government’s alleged illicit spending during the campaign period from March 25 to May 8, 2022.
It also called for an investigation on Mamba’s alleged vote-buying. The Commission on Elections in late 2022 disqualified Mamba for violating the spending ban.
Mamba said he was “surprised” upon receiving the detention order issued by a House of Represenatives joint panel. Mamba said it was his understanding that he was “excused” from attending its hearings.
“I don’t have a subpoena, they didn’t summon me, and they excused me, Mamba said.
The public accounts panel’s chairman, Representative Joseph Stephen Paduano of the Abang Lingkod party list, earlier said that the governor had not shown up for the hearings since the hearings started on May 31.
Mamba stated that although he had attended the meeting on May 31, he had been excused from the subsequent public hearings because of the ongoing legal disputes between the Supreme Court and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) about the same issue of public spending during election season.
“Nag-attend nga ako noong May 31, kaya nga inexcuse na nila ako dahil sabi ko nga sub judice dahil naka-pending sa komite ito,” said Mamba. (I attended last May 31, so they excused me since as I said, it was due to sub judice because this was still pending in the committee.) In the May hearing, according to Mamba, he was questioned about matters that were “covered by the sub judice rule, related to those pending before the Comelec, Supreme Court (SC), and Ombudsman.
I declined to respond to some of their inquiries because I was afraid I may be found in contempt even by the Supreme Court, so I was just wondering what was going on now, he added.
When questioned about his apparent refusal to give local authorities travel authorization, he claimed that he had instead requested their excuse due to an impending super typhoon.
I felt that the top concern should be how to deal with the typhoon, Mamba said, adding that about 6,000 people lost their homes and we have to take care of this. We sent a letter to postpone our participation; we want to attend next time, the governor stated.
They claim that Mamba engaged in vote-buying, while COMELEC asserts that there was no vote-buying. Mamba likewise refuted allegations of vote-buying by claiming that not a single cent was misappropriated and assuring that the help went to the people