Abalos lawyer cleared of contempt

MANILA, Philippines - A lawyer of former elections chairman Benjamin Abalos was cleared of direct contempt over allegations that emissaries of a Pasay City judge had tried to extort money from them.

The Court of Appeals 12th division voided an order of Judge Jesus Mupas of Pasay City Regional Trial Court for the arrest of lawyer Brigido Dulay and imposing a P2,000 fine and imprisonment of 10 days.

Justices Francisco Acosta, Magdangal de Leon and Angelita Gacutan concurred in the ruling.

Mupas had cited Dulay and Abalos in contempt after Dulay filed a motion for inhibition on grounds that certain individuals claiming to be emissaries of Mupas tried to extort money from his client.

The CA ruled that the motion for inhibition merely enumerated the factual circumstances that led Abalos to believe that he could no longer get an impartial trial from Mupas.

“Simply, petitioner (Dulay), as counsel for Abalos, merely relayed to the court a quo specific events which ultimately led petitioner’s client (Abalos) to doubt the court a quo’s impartiality,” read the CA decision.

“A review of the contents of the motion for inhibition as well as the transcript of stenographic notes of the hearing held thereon leads us to believe that no malicious, derogatory or offensive allegations were made by petitioner (Dulay).”

The CA said Dulay’s actuations are neither malicious, offensive or derogatory to the administration of justice as to hold him liable for direct contempt.

Speaking to reporters, Dulay welcomed the decision as “a concrete and solid proof” that the judicial system is functioning effectively.

“I never had any doubt that our CA justices would faithfully and impartially carry out their mandate of providing legal relief to anyone seeking redress from a miscarriage of justice in the lower courts,” he said.