6 Caloocan dads post bail in contempt case

MANILA, Philippines - Six members of the Caloocan City council each posted P100,000 bail yesterday in an indirect contempt case against them for their failure to appropriate funds for a property acquired by the city government in 1996.

Susana Punzalan, Marylou Nubla, Luis Chito Abel, Allen Aruelo, Tolentino Bagus and Carolyn Cunanan were accompanied by their supporters when they posted bail with Regional Trial Court Branch 125 Judge Dionisio Sison.

The judge gave Vice Mayor Macario Asistio III; Councilors Aurora Henson, Karina Teh, Dean Asistio, Jay Afrika, Rose Mercado and Roberto Samson; and Liga ng mga Barangay chairman Dale Malapitan five days to post bail, “otherwise the warrants of arrest would be issued immediately.”

City legal counsel Michael Arthur Camina earlier filed an omnibus motion for the fixing of the bail “to assure that the councilors won’t be arrested.”

However, Camina said they would elevate the expropriation order, mandamus and indirect contempt case to the Court of Appeals (CA).

In a statement, the councilors said they will wait for the decision of CA to fix the amount, including the legal interest, the city government will pay Recom Realty Corp. for the property.

“We believe that people’s money should be subjected to legal process before it could be expropriated for any purpose,” the statement read.

Camina said the councilors are trying to raise their own funds for bail “because the city hall could not, in any way, give them (money) for that purpose.”