NEWS: “Create free port, new legislative district in Comval”- congress bet Lopoz

By Cha Monforte

jan 7

ATTY. REX LOPOZ

COMPOSTELA VALLEY- District 2 congressional candidate Atty. Rex Lopoz (independent) is dishing out new ideas – free port in coastal towns, and creation of new legislative district in Compostela Valley which was immediately labeled as “strange” by pundits here.

Lopoz, in a phone interview yesterday, said that he has “in mind a legislation creating free port to be situated either in the coastal town of Pantukan, Mabini or Maco considering that Mindanao has no free port yet, and with it thousands if not millions of income and jobs would be miraculously created for our people.”

With it, he said, the basis is laid for the coastal district to become a special economic zone that would even serve the southern and central Mindanao and Caraga regions.

But strangely Lopoz is also proposing to gerrymander his own district where he is running for congressman, since “the three contiguous coastal towns of Maco, Mabini and Pantukan deserve to have a separate legislative district primarily owing to the sameness of their coastal characteristics and this is in support the free port. We can make this coastal district as the third district of Comval”.

The lawyer said that “the smaller second district would be composed of Nabunturan, Mawab and Laak and possibly include Montevista of the first district”.

But pundits here immediately frowned upon Lopoz ideas on the creation of the new district as “strange” saying that it would chop off into smaller turf the province’s District 2.

“While such idea can correct a geographical infirmity of making one to travel from the capital town of Nabunturan by passing first Tagum City before he reaches the coastal towns or Laak, it is strange knowing that congressmen usually want to have bigger area to get bigger slice of pork barrel,” said Romelito Juson, co-convenor of the Movement for Change in Compostela Valley.

But Lopoz laughed off the charge saying he is not afraid to serve even in a district with smallest area and smallest population, adding that “true public service knows no confines nor bounds”.

“What the people now clamor is change,” he said. (Cha Monforte/Rural Urban News)

NEWS: Lawyering for Ampatuans won’t affect candidacy- Atty. Lopoz

dec 7

Lawyer Rex Lopoz, who is one of the group of lawyers defending the Ampatuans involved in the Maguindanao massacre, said that he does not believe that his lawyering for them would not affect his candidacy for congressman in the second district of Compostela Valley.
“We, lawyers are just performing our profession, we are just following processes the law and the rules provide for,” he said in a text message.
Atty. Lopoz said that “the people of Compostela Valley are not naive into thinking that just because I am one of the 40 lawyers hired by the Ampatuans, they would then not vote for me?”
“People should understand that the primary duty of a lawyer is to facilitate the administration of justice to ensure that the laws, rules and other processes are observed. Without observance of legal processes, human rights are surely violated,” he added.
The 32-year old lawyer is running independent in three-corner fight with reelectionist Congressman Rommel Amatong and former Governor Jose Caballero.
Lopoz and Atty. Anwar Khalid Maliawao succeeded Friday to get the writ of amparo from the Court of Appeals in Cagayan de Oro City for the members of the Ampatuan family against the military, Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation.
The hearing on the writ of amparo at the Solicitor General’s office in Manila was scheduled on December 9.
The two lawyers filed the early petition for the write of amparo in behalf of Governor Zaldy Ampatuan of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and his father, Maguindanao Governor Andal Sr. on Thursday.
In their petition, Lopoz and Maliawao asked the court to order the military, the PNP and the NBI to lift restrictions on the movement of the Ampatuans, their supporters and lawyers.

They argued that their clients and the others restricted inside the houses of the Ampatuans in Shariff Aguak were being arbitrarily detained although there were no charges against them.

Lopoz and Maliawao left Maguindanao to file the petition in Cagayan de Oro City on November 30, a day before the military cordoned off Ampatuan houses.

They said that there was “virtual house arrest” made on 15 colleague lawyers left in an Ampatuan house in Maguindanao.

Justice Romulo Borja of the court’s 21st Division granted their petition and penned the resolution. It was issued at 10 a.m. Friday. (Cha Monforte/Rural Urban News)

NEWS: Lawyer Jun Lopoz bids to run vs. Maricar for Congress in Comval District 1

oct 19

The political teapot in the District 1 of Compostela Valley is currently astir as pundits and village leaders seem to go gung-ho over the scenario of a lawyer running against the daughter of the outgoing Congressman Manuel “Way Kurat” Zamora whom the administration party has long billed to be unopposed in 2010 polls.

Atty. Jaime “Jun” Lopoz Jr, former Ombudsman graft investigation officer and prosecutor, formally declared at the recent before a group of barangay leaders in Montevista that he is running as “he is  just kursunada (gutsy)” to give Boardmember Maricar Zamora-Apsay “a good fight than give the honored congressman’s position to her with us just sitting down…as mute onlookers staring the father handing the crown jewel to his daughter”.

The congressional bid of Apsay, daughter of outgoing Congressman Manuel “Way Kurat” Zamora, was earlier threatened by Vice Gov. Ramil Gentugay, a Lakas-Kampi-CMD partymate, but the latter backed out citing it would be divisive and would disrupt the unity of political leaders in the province under provincial aggrupation Uswag Comval led by Gov. Arturo “Chiongkee” Uy.

But Atty. Lopoz said: “We need to give meaning to election, which is about giving our people the freedom to elect the representative they want in Congress. Without choices, we deny the right of the people to choose and elect their leaders, and we lose just as we’ll just be content of what a few have chosen to arrogate in power.”

On the heels of the lawyer’s declaration the other week, already a few barangay captains in New Bataan town have reportedly expressed they are open to make their barangays “free zones” and allow barangay people decide for their own in the coming elections.

“We need a change now. Although I have been a loyal supporter of Way Kurat,  I don’t want to put pressure to my barangay people whom to vote for in 2010. Way Kurat has has no longer power after the 2010 election. Maricar and Jun are just the same- they’re both newcomers to the position, Way Kurat and Maricar are two different persons,” said a barangay captain who did not want to be identified.

The Lopoz camp also claimed that some barangay leaders in Monkayo have already launched a “peso-peso para kang Atty. Lopoz” campaign to give the lawyer “support from the masses”. “This is just for a start,” said Romelito Juson, a Lopoz volunteer.

Atty. Jun, the eldest brother of Boardmember Atty. Dexter Lopoz, has been in private lawyering practice for over ten years now following his stint as graft investigation officer and prosecutor of the Office of the Ombudsman for Mindanao for five years.

While he studied law at Ateneo de Davao University Law School as working student, he taught as college professor at Ateneo de Davao University and at Davao Doctors College for ten years.

He passed, first taker, the Bar exams in 1996,  thus subsequently encouraging his younger brothers to also study law, now Atty. Dexter, who topped second placer of 2000 Bar exams and Atty. Rex Lopoz, who passed, first taker, in 2006.

In his college Atty. Jun was a scholar and a popular student leader who was elected for two straight terms as president of the Supreme Student Council of MSU-IIT in Iligan City.

He had also become the Mindanao chairman of the League of Filipino Students (LFS), and had been a labor union organizer and community organizer before he decided to study law at AdDU. (Cha Monforte/Rural Urban News)

NEWS: Judge Clapis subpoenas DoF, DBM experts for say on P90 M bond float

On TRO, injunction vs. Nabunturan bond flotation
nov 13

NABUNTURAN- Regional Trial Court Judge Helarion Clapis here has ordered yesterday to send subpoenas to the regional offices of the Department of Finance and the Department of Budget and Management for their experts to testify and give opinions as neutral parties on the P90-million bond flotation project of the municipal administration which town oppositors seek to stop through court action.

Bond float oppositors last Friday filed at RTC-Branch 3 here last Friday a court case praying for injunction with application for writ of preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order (TRO) against respondents Mayor Macario Humol, Vice Mayor Romeo Clarin and Councilors Iluminada Cabuga, Darwin Tan, Edilberto Minoza, Vivencia Secuya, Cheryl Trinidad, ABC president Alfredo Manalop, sectoral representative Felipe Masambo and Sangguniang Kabataan president Jennifer Gamao.

Not included in the case were also oppositionist councilors Raul Caballero and Editha Arangcon.

Complainants of the case and authorized representatives of the people’s initiative petition were Councilor Alfonso Tabas, Jr. Emilio delos Reyes and newsman Cha Monforte.

The case filed was docketed as Civil Case No. 898.

The respondents have answered yesterday their comment and opposition to the case following Monday’s summons of Judge Clapis for them to enter appearance within 15 days from receipt of summons.

Only Minoza and Gamao were not present in yesterday’s hearing.

They were represented by their counsels prosecutor Ferdinand Villanueva and provincial prosecutor Graciano Arafol.

On the other hand, the complainants’ counsels were Atty. Rex Lopoz and Atty. Carlo Ancla.

In yesterday’s first hearing on the injunction with TRO, following hearing of arguments that a took a little over an hour, Judge Clapis said,  citing Rule 58 on the rules of court on injunction and a “limited knowledge of this court” on bond flotation such as about its fees and costs and how it affects the people of Nabunturan, “there is a need to issue subpoenas” to DoF and DBM “to testify and inform this court on the effects of bond flotation, whether or not it would be for the benefit or disadvantage of the people”.

He said that the court has the power to impose an injunction to a government unit if there is a need for “special probationary remedy to correct an error”.
He said there is a need for experts from neutral parties and not those coming from local parties on the bond flotation to enlighten his court whether he would issue an injunction or not.

He ordered his court sheriff Rene Suarez to serve the summons to DoF and DBM today and scheduled the next hearing Thursday next week, Nov. 20. (Rural Urban News) http://ruralurbanews.blogspot.com

NEWS: Facing a mountain of court cases, Nabunturan Judge Clapis says “I’m no Superman”

oct 27

Pity the one and only Regional Trial Court judge in Compostela Valley for facing a mountain of court cases for him to decide.

The national average of cases at the salas of RTC judges is only about 800 cases but RTC Branch 3 Judge Hilarion Clapis Jr has todate over 2,700 cases clogging up in his sala at Nabunturan capital town.

For these, he conducts an average of 30 court hearings every working day and at times there are 45 cases listed for hearing in a day. Compared to the 6 RTCs in Davao del Norte, each sala could be fairly content of hearing an average of 10 cases in day, reckons the youthful Atty. Rex Lopoz of the Lopoz and Lopoz Law Group.

Each RTC sala in Davao del Norte has to contend only some 500 cases.

But the friendly judge though is apparently a trier of figures against hard realities dawning in his sala. He says: “I’m resolving cases as fast and as intelligently as I can, but I’m no Superman. The figure is too much”.

For this, Judge Clapis has no penchant of always allowing motions for postponements of hearings saying that “I like many lawyers coming over, debating in my sala everyday”.

He thanked the Integrated Bar of the Philippines- Davao del Norte-Compostela Valley Chapter chaired by Atty. Daniel Campoamor for the general membership meeting’s resolution on Friday asking the Senate and House of Representatives for the immediate creation of RTC salas in Compostela Valley.

Last Friday, in the bid of making justice accessible to the poor, the local IBP Chapter also asked the Supreme Court for two additional Public Attorney Office (PAO) lawyers for each of Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley, and additional prosecutors for the latter province.

The lawyers group also asked the Supreme Court, for the immediate appointment of regular judges in the municipal circuit court for Compostela and New Bataan and the municipal trial court in Laak, which are currently served by Acting Judge Juanito Betonio (Cha Monforte/Rural Urban News) http://ruralurbanews.blogspot.com