Manila city prosecutor Lopez

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Manila city prosecutor Lopez
Sunday, 05 26, 2006

The wait took quite a long while — eight months to be exact — for a worthy successor to be selected and confirmed as a fully-deserving officer of justice who could sit on the bench vacated by Manila city prosecutor Ramon Garcia, who had been elevated to the Court of Appeals. But then, the search for an able lawyer who would represent the people of Manila when they take action against somebody in a court of law is not a process that has to be done for the mere sake of expediency. On the other hand, the position is too vital for the peace-and-order situation of the city, that to leave it unfilled for too long a time would be practically inviting anarchy and mayhem in the streets.

So when Manila Councilor Jhosep Lopez was finally sworn into office as city prosecutor, Manilans heaved a sigh of relief. Here, at last, is one of their own, one who has known the ins and outs of the law — criminal law most especially — and who would dispense justice with the impartiality and diligence that have been his professional hallmarks ever since he served at the City Hall starting 1995. Many years ago in now-dimming memory, a disgruntled columnist cavalierly belittled Lopez as a tyro: a beginner and novice all rolled into one. If he says that again now, I’m sure he’ll end up eating his own words.

I had the good fortune to encounter Lopez when he was a callow fellow who had yet to learn how to give life to the law, much more how to live it. He was then fresh out of the UP College of Law in 1986, but I lost no time in grabbing him for immediate employment at the University of the Philippines. I was not mistaken in that decision. The young Lopez promptly earned his spurs as a trial lawyer, prosecuting many of the criminal cases where UP was a complainant or where some of its administrative personnel and faculty were involved. As university legal counsel, Lopez particularly distinguished himself when he took on the celebrated case of the six students of the UP College of Medicine who were denied admission by the faculty but were allowed to enroll by the UP Board of Regents. He won that case before then Regional Trial Court Judge Ruben Reyes, and then gave it tender legal care and protection all the way to the Supreme Court, where Lopez won, confirming again that UP is indeed the country’s bastion of academic freedom.

His insights, moreover, greatly contributed to the landmark achievement of the UP Institute of Judicial Administration, of which I was director, in producing legal outputs such as the authoritative Manual on Case Management, the Judges’ Journal, and the research paper identifying the causes of delay in the courts and itemizing their corresponding remedies.

Lopez’s experience in the appellate courts is the subject of grudging envy of many of his contemporaries. A great many cases that he brought before the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court, a number of them having to do with constitutional issues, are now well enshrined in our judicial tomes.

In 1992, Lopez went on to become the chief legal counsel of the Senate, the youngest ever that august body had. The lucidity of his opinions and his expert handling of the many cases questioning the validity of legislative acts impressed even the grizzled lawyers at the Senate. Even the venerable Senate president Jovito Salonga, a brilliant legal mind in his own right, relied on the sagacity of the young Lopez.

Lopez would then use the Senate experience as springboard to a plunge in politics. In this murky pool, he managed to keep from being devoured by the wily veteran sharks despite his political naiveté, and stayed alive for many terms, acquiring political savvy and experience with each term. When we last heard about him, we were saddened to learn that he lost by a hairline — less than a thousand votes — in his attempt at becoming the representative of the third district of Manila. Notwithstanding that loss, the number of votes he pulled in was a testimony to his drawing power, especially if one were to consider that in that election it was the clink of silver, not qualifications, that decided the winner.

The experience of Lopez in the sacred groves of UP, his productive sojourn at the legislative department, his involvement in the pioneering efforts to remedy the causes of judicial delay, and finally the political savvy he developed as a councilor — each exposure complements the others to make a well-tempered mold — a compleat man, as it were — out of Lopez, who shall from this time forth carry on, and perhaps even creatively reinvent, the challenging job of city prosecutor.

Manila Mayor Lito Atienza might have lost one of the few good men at the City Council, but he has gained a major ally and champion at the prosecutor’s office. Since Feb. 23 when Lopez took over, he has already cut down the backlog of pending cases from 1,800 to half that number. He is also enforcing the 90-day rule for the resolution of cases, withholding the release of allowances to those prosecutors who violate this. As city prosecutor, Lopez can very well become, again the youngest ever, the most achieving city prosecutor in the premier posting for a city prosecutor.

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