Atty. Vic Rodriguez FILE PHOTO / SENATE PRIB
MANILA, Philippines — A group of trial lawyers on Tuesday condemned the House of Representatives over its treatment of Office of the Vice President (OVP) chief of staff Zuleika Lopez, who was cited for contempt and detained for undue interference in its committee hearings.
It was the House Committee on Good Governance and Public Accountability that held Lopez in contempt during a hearing on the alleged misuse of public funds by the OVP under Vice President Sara Duterte.
The Quezon City Trial Lawyers League – led by Victor Rodriguez, former presidential adviser to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. turned Duterte ally – however, said the House committed “blatant disregard of the constitutionally enshrined rights to due process and presumption of innocence” in citing Lopez for contempt, specifically, when it failed to act upon Lopez’s request for reconsideration.
“The acts undertaken by the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability against Atty. Lopez is patently tantamount to grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction,” the group said in a recent statement.
The group defended Lopez, stating that the “evasive answers” she made were the “mere opinion” of ACT-Teachers party-list 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,” the group of trial lawyers said.
The league also called out the committee for “unceremoniously” ordering the transfer of Lopez from the House of Representatives Detention Facility to the Women’s Correctional Facility in Mandaluyong City.
Furthermore, while the group expressed respect to the power of the House of Representatives to cite persons in contempt, “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.”
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Due to this, the group called members of the House committee to resolve the Motion for Reconsideration lodged by Lopez, and to accord her the right to due process.
Lopez is currently confined at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center after suffering from a panic attack.