Topacio asks SC to cite Guanzon for contempt for ‘malicious’ publication of disbarment case
ALAWYER asked the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday to cite retired Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner Maria Rowena Amelia Guanzon for indirect contempt for violating the confidentiality rule on the filing of disbarment cases.
The petitioner, lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, was referring to Guanzon’s posts in her Twitter account announcing her filing of a disbarment complaint against him on June 13, 2021 and a criminal case for unjust vexation she filed before a trial court in Bacolod City.
Topacio and Guanzon have been at odds after the former filed a graft case before the Office of the Ombudsman against her.
The petitioner said the former Comelec official “intentionally and maliciously tweeted in public about the disbarment case she filed against him and even tagged major media organizations.
On the day of the filing of the complaint, Topacio said Guanzon went overboard when she announced to the media the filing of the disbarment case.
Topacio submitted as evidence a video footage of Guanzon flashing the first page of her petition before the media for the public to see.
An article that came out in a major newspaper the next day, according to Topacio, quoted and thoroughly cited the details in the petition, which was supposed to be confidential in nature.
The petitioner expressed belief that it was Guanzon who disseminated to the media the details in her petition.
He also noted that even after the filing of the disbarment case, Guanzon continued to mention about it in her succeeding tweets for no valid reason except to humiliate him and tarnish his reputation as a lawyer.
Topacio pointed out that the confidentiality rule is intended to prevent the use of disbarment proceedings as a tool to damage a lawyer’s reputation in the public sphere.
Thus, the petitioner said, the general rule is that publicly disclosing disbarment proceedings may be punished with contempt.
Respondent, in repeatedly tweeting the existence of the disbarment case, and the other cases she filed, appears to insinuate to her followers that the petitioner has already done an unlawful act even if it has not yet been proven in a legal proceeding, Topacio stressed.
Rule 139-B, Section 18 of the Rules of Court states: “Proceedings against attorneys shall be private and confidential, However, the final order of the Supreme Court shall be published like its decision in other cases.”