EN BANC
FLORENCE
TEVES
MACARRUBO,
THE MINORS
JURIS ALEXIS T. MACARRUBO
AND GABRIEL
ENRICO
T. MACARRUBO
AS REPRESENTED BY
THEIR MOTHER/GUARDIAN,FLORENCE TEVES
MACARRUBO,
Complainant,
A.C.
No.
6148
February 27, 2004
-versus-
ATTY.
EDMUNDO L.
MACARRUBO,
Respondent.
D
E C I S I
O N
PER
CURIAM:
Florence Teves Macarrubo
[complainant], by herself and on behalf of her two children, filed on
June
6, 2000 a Verified Complaint[1]
for Disbarment against Atty. Edmundo L. Macarubbo [respondent] with the
Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), docketed as CBD Case No.
00-734-A,
alleging that respondent deceived her into marrying him despite his
prior
subsisting marriage with a certain Helen Esparza.chanrobles virtual law library
Detailing the circumstances
surrounding respondent’s complained act, complainant averred that he
started
courting her in April 1991, he representing himself as a bachelor; that
they eventually contracted marriage which was celebrated on two
occasions
administered by Rev. Rogelio J. Bolivar, the first on December 18, 1991[2]
in the latter’s Manila office, and the second on December 28, 1991[3]
at the Asian Institute of Tourism Hotel in Quezon City; and that
although
respondent admitted that he was married to Helen Esparza on June 16,
1982,
he succeeded in convincing complainant, her family and friends that his
previous marriage was void.cralaw:red
Complainant further
averred that respondent entered into a third marriage with one
Josephine
T. Constantino; and that he abandoned complainant and their children
without
providing them any regular support up to the present time, leaving them
in precarious living conditions.cralaw:red
Complainant submitted
documentary evidence consisting of the marriage contract between
respondent
and Helen Esparza[4]
and that between her and respondent,[5]
and photographs[6]
of their (complainant and respondent) nuptials and of captured moments
in their life as a couple and a family.cralaw:red
Copy of the complaint
could not be immediately served upon respondent owing to the difficulty
of locating him.[7]
Complainant later filed
a Manifestation[8]
before the IBP, furnishing therein respondent’s address where he
supposedly
resided with his third wife Jo T. Constantino-Macarubbo. The IBP
Commission on Bar Discipline thereupon thrice[9]
required respondent to file his Answer. He failed to do so,
however,
on motion of complainant,[10]
he was declared in default.[11]
Complainant was thus allowed to present evidence ex parte.chanrobles virtual law library
The IBP Investigating
Commissioner came out with a Report and Recommendation on January 22,
2001.[12]
By Resolution of May
26, 2001,[13]
however, the IBP Board of Governors remanded the case to the
Investigating
Commissioner to “ensure proper notice or another opportunity to serve
notice
to the respondent.” Subsequently or on September 5, 2001,
respondent
filed a Manifestation/Ex Parte Motion to Re-Open Proceedings[14]
which was granted.[15]
By Comment of October
18, 2001,[16]
respondent denied employing deception in his marriage to complainant,
insisting
instead that complainant was fully aware of his prior subsisting
marriage
to Helen Esparza, but that she dragged him against his will to a “sham
wedding” to protect her and her family’s reputation since she was then
three-months pregnant.cralaw:red
Respondent submitted
in evidence the final and executory October 30, 2000 Decision of Branch
IV of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Tuguegarao City in Civil Case
No.
5617, “Edmundo L. Macarubbo v. Florence J. Teves,”[17]
declaring his marriage to complainant void ab initio. He drew
attention
to the trial court’s findings on the basis of his evidence which was
not
controverted, that the marriage was indeed “a sham and make believe”
one,
“vitiated by fraud, deceit, force and intimidation, and further
exacerbated
by the existence of a legal impediment” and want of a valid marriage
license.cralaw:red
Respondent also submitted
a certification from the National Statistics Office that complainant’s
name does not appear in the National Index of Marriages for Bride;[18]
another certification from the National Statistics Office-Office of
Civil
Registrar General that it has no record of the December 28, 1991
marriage
of complainant and respondent;[19]
and an attestation from the Office of the Municipal Civil Registrar of
Bacoor, Cavite that Marriage License No. 772176221 which was used in
complainant
and respondent’s marriage is not on file in its records.[20]
Admitting having sired
complainant’s two children, Juris Alexis and Gabriel Enrico, respondent
denied ever abandoning them.cralaw:red
In his Supplemental
Comment,[21]
respondent claimed that he left complainant and their two children with
her consent after explaining to her that the pain and shame of living
in
sin and ridicule was unbearable.chanrobles virtual law library
To refute the charge
that he had abandoned complainant and their two children, he presented
copies of fully paid educational plans[22]
for the high school and college education of the children; a Philippine
National Bank check dated January 18, 1999 for P22,556.33 representing
his payment of the final amortization of his car which has been in
complainant’s
possession since 1997;[23]
a copy of a petition of complainant in a civil case filed against
respondent
with the Quezon City RTC, for judicial authorization to sell certain
properties
of respondent, wherein she admitted that respondent issued three
postdated
checks in the amount of P2,000.00 each for his children’s allowance
covering
the period October 1999 to December 1999;[24]
and copy of his August 9, 1999 letter to complainant demanding custody
of his children, he having been barred from seeing them, as well as the
return of his personal properties in complainant’s possession.[25]
To disprove that he
is of depraved moral character, respondent submitted certifications
from
the Office of the Bar Confidant,[26]
Office of the Ombudsman,[27]
Department of Justice,[28]
and the Philippine National Police in his hometown in Enrile, Cagayan[29]
that he has no cases of any nature pending with them. And he too
submitted letters from the Department of Interior and Local Government[30]
and the Metro Manila Development Authority[31]
addressed to him to show that he is a civic-spirited person.cralaw:red
Finally, respondent,
in his Supplemental Comment, raised the additional defenses that the
judicial
decree of annulment of his marriage to complainant is res judicata upon
the present administrative case; that complainant is in estoppel for
admitting
her status as mere live-in partner to respondent in her letter to
Josephine
T. Constantino;[32]
and that she resorted to forum-shopping in bringing both this
administrative
action and the civil case with the Quezon City RTC.cralaw:red
Stressing that he had
always been the victim in his marital relations, respondent invoked the
final and executory August 21, 1998 Decision of Branch 158 of the Pasig
City RTC in JDRC Case No. 4320, “Edmundo L. Macarubbo v. Helen C.
Esparza,”[33]
declaring his first marriage void on the ground of his wife’s
psychological
incapacity.chanrobles virtual law library
After hearing during
which both complainant and respondent took the witness stand, the
Investigating
Commissioner rendered a Report and Recommendation[34]
the dispositive portion of which reads:
WHEREFORE,
premises considered, it is recommended that respondent Atty. Edmundo L.
Macarrubo be SUSPENDED FOR THREE MONTHS for gross misconduct reflecting
unfavorably on the moral norms of the profession. Moreover, it
must
likewise be impressed on respondent that he should comply with the
moral
and legal obligations incumbent upon him as a father of the children as
a result of his relationship with complainant. (Underscoring
supplied.)
The IBP Board of
Governors
subsequently passed Resolution No. XV-2003-351[35]
which adopted and approved the Report and Recommendation of the
Investigating
Commissioner.
The final disposition
of the present administrative case is now before this Court.cralaw:red
It appears that respondent
began his legal career in 1986 as Legal Officer of the Department of
Education,
Culture and Sports after which he became Supervising Civil Service
Attorney
of the Civil Service Commission.[36]
He later became an Ombudsman Graft Investigation Officer, then a State
Prosecutor of the Department of Justice, before finally bowing out of
public
service after about 14 years or in July 2000 to engage in private
practice.[37]
The rule that a lawyer
may be disciplined or suspended for any misconduct, whether in his
professional
or private capacity, which shows him to be wanting in moral character,
in honesty, in probity and good demeanor, thus rendering him unworthy
to
continue as an officer of the court[38]
bears reiterating.cralaw:red
Upon the evidence on
record, respondent is indeed guilty of gross misconduct in his private
affairs which warrant disciplinary action by this Court as the guardian
of the purity and integrity of the legal profession.chanrobles virtual law library
The incontrovertible
facts show that while respondent had a subsisting marriage with Helen
Esparza
with whom he had two children,[39]
he entered into a second marriage with complainant.cralaw:red
While the marriage between
complainant and respondent has been annulled by final judgment, this
does
not cleanse his conduct of every tinge of impropriety. He and
complainant
started living as husband and wife in December 1991 when his first
marriage
was still subsisting, as it was only on August 21, 1998 that such first
marriage was annulled, rendering him liable for concubinage.[40]
Such conduct is inconsistent with the good moral character that is
required
for the continued right to practice law as a member of the Philippine
bar.[41]
It imports moral turpitude and is a public assault upon the basic
social
institution of marriage.[42]
Even assuming arguendo
that respondent was coerced by complainant to marry her, the duress, by
his own admission as the following transcript of his testimony
reflects,
ceased after their wedding day, respondent having freely cohabited with
her and even begot a second child by her.cralaw:red
x
x x
ATTY. PAGUIA [Complainant’s
Counsel]
Q: Are you
claiming that the complainant coerced you again to marry her?
A:
Yes, I was.cralaw:red
Q: Did she
use a gun to coerce you?chanrobles virtual law library
A:
A lot of people appearing around and a lot of bad mouth from her,
threats
to sue me and to even kill me by people around.cralaw:red
Q: So insofar
as you are concerned the complainant committed a crime of coercion
against
yourself?
A:
Yes.cralaw:red
Q: And is
it correct for me to say that you did not file any case before the
Prosecutor’s
Office.cralaw:red
A:
I reported that matter to the police.cralaw:red
COMMISSIONER CONCEPCION
–
Q: In what
way did M[s]. Florence Teves coerce you?
A:
She placed me in a place where she could guard me and she treated (sic)
to sue me, destroy my career. And at the time of the marriage she
sent people to fetch me from my place to be there. And there are
a lot of people with strange faces.cralaw:red
ATTY. PAGUIA –
Q: How many
days or hours did this coercion last?
A:
That’s continuing.cralaw:red
Q: From
what day to what day?
A:
It’s started when she said she was pregnant until the date of the
alleged
marriage.cralaw:red
Q: Can you
tell the Honorable Commission who got her pregnant at that time?chanrobles virtual law library
A:
Although there was a carnal knowledge once.cralaw:red
Q: Of course
you know that the complainant delivered the child after your marriage,
is it not?
A:
Yes, six months after because she was already pregnant three months
during
that time already.cralaw:red
Q: Can you
tell the Honorable Commission what is the name of the child was (sic)?
A:
Juris. I recognized the children. There’s no problem about
that. I gave them educational plan, I gave them support.cralaw:red
Q: After
the first child you continued living with the complainant, is it not?
A:
Intermittently I get out and then she would call pagka’t may sakit yong
bata so I have to go back.cralaw:red
Q: Of course
it was your responsibility as father to the child to see the condition
of the child?
A:
Yes, that’s why whenever she comes and tells me that the child is sick
I go there.cralaw:red
Q: After
your wedding with the complainant can you tell the Honorable Commission
where you resided?
COMMISSIONER CONCEPCION
–
Q: When
you say where you resided, both of them?chanrobles virtual law library
ATTY. PAGUIA:
Yes, Your Honor.cralaw:red
A:
In the residence of Florence.cralaw:red
ATTY. PAGUIA –
Q: How long
did you live with the complainant after your wedding?
A:
Intermittently again few months then I get out then when the child is
sick
I have to visit.cralaw:red
COMMISSIONER CONCEPCION
–
Q: When
you say intermittently you don’t stay there?
A:
Not permanently.cralaw:red
ATTY. PAGUIA –
Q: How often
did you come home to the residence of the complainant?
A:
Whenever she call that the child is sick.cralaw:red
Q: So you
live (sic) with her up to what year?
A:
Intermittently 1995.chanrobles virtual law library
Q: You mentioned
that you have two children with the complainant?
A:
Yes.cralaw:red
Q: Can you
remember when your second child with the complainant was born?
A:
I cannot remember.cralaw:red
Q: Do you
know how old the second child with the complainant is?
A:
I guess six or seven.cralaw:red
Q: What
is his name?
A:
Mico.cralaw:red
Q: Who provided
the support for these children from the time they were born up to the
present?
A:
When I was there I gave for their subsistence.cralaw:red
Q: Will
you please tell the Commission how much was that?
A:
I buy groceries for them and I gave also for their leisure and for
their
education.chanrobles virtual law library
Q: When
you gave this support during the intermittently that you had with them?chanrobles virtual law library
A:
Intermittently also.chanrobles virtual law library
A:
Roughly, Compañero, can you tell the Honorable Commission from
that
time they were born to this time how much you were giving them?
A:
I cannot compute.cralaw:red
COMMISSIONER CONCEPCION
–
Q: What
about on a monthly basis, do you recall?
A:
I cannot compute although when I left with her consent in 1997 I left
valuables
in the amount of P400,000.00.cralaw:red
Q: When
you say with her consent, did you tell her that you are leaving?
A:
Yes, Your Honor, she agreed because I said I can no longer bear living
with sin.cralaw:red
x
x x[43]
(Emphasis and underscoring supplied)
The saying that photographs
do not lie could not be any truer in those submitted in evidence by
complainant
which show a typical happy family with respondent essaying out his role
as a husband to complainant and a father to their two kids.
Respondent
cannot thus take refuge in the earlier mentioned finding in the
decision
of Tuguegarao City trial court in the annulment case he filed against
complainant.
The decision, rendered in default of complainant, cannot serve as res
judicata
on the final resolution of the present case. As this Court held
in
In re Almacen,[44]
a disbarment case is sui generis for it is neither purely civil nor
purely
criminal but is rather an investigation by the Court into the conduct
of
its officers. Thus, if the acquittal of a lawyer in a criminal
action
is not determinative of an administrative case against him,[45]
or if an affidavit of withdrawal of a disbarment case does not affect
its
course,[46]
then the judgment of annulment of respondent’s marriage does not also
exonerate
him from a wrongdoing actually committed. So long as the quantum
of proof – clear preponderance of evidence – in disciplinary
proceedings
against members of the bar is met, then liability attaches.[47]chanrobles virtual law library
The disturbing fact
that respondent was able to secure the annulment of his first two
marriages
and is in the process of procuring the annulment of his third bears
noting.
Contrary to the finding of the Investigating Commissioner, respondent,
by his own admission, contracted a third marriage:
x
x x
ATTY. PAGUIA –
Q: After
getting married to the complainant is it a fact that you entered into a
third marriage to one Josephine Constantino?
A:
I think that is.cralaw:red
Q: I will
reform, Your Honor. Do you know a person by the name of Josephine
Constantino?
A:
Yes
Q: What
relation if any do you have with her?
A:
I am separated to her since 2000.chanrobles virtual law library
COMMISSIONER CONCEPCION
–chanrobles virtual law library
Q: Were
you married to Josephine Constantino?
A:
Yes, but it’s in the process of annulment.cralaw:red
x
x x[48]
(Emphasis and underscoring supplied.)
In both his marriages
to his first wife and to complainant, respondent claimed that he was
made
to enter into the marital union against his will. That claim is
an
affront to the intelligence of the members of this Court to distinguish
fact from fiction, reality from fantasy. It is not easy to
believe
that a lawyer like respondent could easily be cowered to enter into any
marriage. One incident of a “shotgun marriage” is believable, but
two such in succession would tax one’s credulity. And then, there
is a third marriage to Josephine T. Constantino which is again the
subject
of another annulment case. It would not come as a surprise if in
that pending case, he would again put blame on his third wife in order
to send the marriage to oblivion.cralaw:red
Respondent here has
exhibited the vice of entering into multiple marriages and then leaving
them behind by the mere expedient of resorting to legal remedies to
sever
them. The impact of respondent’s conduct is incalculable upon his
ex-wives as well as the children he had by them, their lives having
been
dislocated beyond recall.chanrobles virtual law library
Respondent’s assertion
that he has not failed to support his children by complainant is not
totally
supported by the evidence on record. He may have secured
educational
plans for them and doled out some sums of money in the past, but it
appears
that he has failed to provide them regular, monthly support. In
fact,
he admitted that even before he left complainant’s residence in 1995,
he
was only giving intermittent support to his children with her.[49]
Such pattern of misconduct
by respondent undermines the institutions of marriage and family,
institutions
that this society looks to for the rearing of our children, for the
development
of values essential to the survival and well-being of our communities,
and for the strengthening of our nation as a whole. This must be
checked if not stopped.cralaw:red
As officers of the court,
lawyers must not only in fact be of good moral character but must also
be perceived to be of good moral character and must lead a life in
accordance
with the highest moral standards of the community.[50]
The moral delinquency that affects the fitness of a member of the bar
to
continue as such, including that which makes a mockery of the
inviolable
social institution of marriage,[51]
outrages the generally accepted moral standards of the community.cralaw:red
In sum, respondent has
breached the following precepts of the Code
of Professional Responsibility:
Rule 1.01 –
A lawyer shall not engage in unlawful, dishonest, immoral or deceitful
conduct.
CANON 7 – A lawyer
shall
at all times uphold the integrity and dignity of the legal profession,
and support the activities of the Integrated Bar.
Rule 7.03 – A
lawyer
shall not engage in conduct that adversely reflects on his fitness to
practice
law, nor shall he, whether in public or private life, behave in a
scandalous
manner to the discredit of the legal profession.chanrobles virtual law library
There can then be no
other
fate that awaits respondent, as a consequence of his grossly immoral
conduct,
than to be disbarred or suspended from the practice of law.[52]
The penalty of 3 months suspension recommended by the IBP is, not
commensurate
to the gravity of his conduct.
WHEREFORE, respondent
EDMUNDO L. MACARUBBO is found guilty of gross immorality and is hereby
DISBARRED from the practice of law. He is likewise ORDERED to
show
satisfactory evidence to the IBP Commission on Bar Discipline and to
this
Court that he is supporting or has made provisions for the regular
support
of his two children by complainant.[53]
Let respondent’s name
be stricken off the Roll of Attorneys.cralaw:red
SO ORDERED.cralaw:red
Davide, Jr., C.J., Vitug,
Panganiban, Quisumbing, Ynares-Santiago, Sandoval-Gutierrez, Carpio,
Austria-Martinez,
Corona, Carpio-Morales, Callejo, Sr., Azcuna, and Tinga, JJ., concur.
Puno, J., on leave.
____________________________
Endnotes:
[1]
Exhibit “B,” Rollo, Vol. 1 at 34-38.
[2]
Exhibit “D,” Rollo, Vol. 1 at 40.
[3]
Exhibit “E,” id at 41.
[4]
Exhibit “C,” id at 39.
[5]
Exhibits “D” and “E,” id. at 40-41.
[6]
Id. at 42-55.chanrobles virtual law library
[7]
Vide complainant’s letter to the IBP’s Commission on Bar Discipline
describing
the circumstances behind the inability to serve the administrative
complaint
upon respondent at Rollo, Vol. 1 at 10-11.
[8]
Id. at 18-19.chanrobles virtual law library
[9]
Id. at 13-14 and 17.
[10]
Id. at 26.
[11]
Id. at 28.chanrobles virtual law library
[12]
Investigating Commissioner’s Report and Recommendation, Rollo, Vol. 3
at
3.
[13]
Rollo, Vol. 1 at 56.
[14]
Id. at 58-60.chanrobles virtual law library
[15]
Vide October 12, 2001 Order by the Investigating Commissioner, Rollo,
Vol.
1, at 89.
[16]
Rollo, Vol. 1 at 90.chanrobles virtual law library
[17]
Rollo, Vol. 2 at 34-37.
[18]
Exhibit “16,” Rollo, Vol. 2 at p. 38.
[19]
Exhibit “17,” id at 39.
[20]
Exhibit “18,” id. at 40.
[21]
Rollo, Vol. 1 at 108-112.
[22]
Exhibits “9,” “9-c,” “9-f,” “9-I,” Rollo, Vol. 2 at 16, 19, 22 and 25.
[23]
Exhibit “10,” id. at 28.
[24]
Exhibit “11,” id. at 29.
[25]
Exhibit “12,” id. at 30-31.
[26]
Exhibit “1,” Rollo, Vol. 2, at 7.
[27]
Exhibit “3,” id. at 9.
[28]
Exhibit “4,” id. at 10.
[29]
Exhibit “6,” id. at 12.
[30]
Exhibit “7,” id. at 13-14.
[31]
Exhibit “8,” id. at 15.
[32]
Exhibit “13,” id. at 32.
[33]
Exhibit “19,” id. at 42-46.chanrobles virtual law library
[34]
Investigating Commissioner’s Report and Recommendation, Rollo, Vol. 3
at
9.
[35]
Notice of Resolution, Rollo, Vol. 3.chanrobles virtual law library
[36]
Exhibit “5,” Rollo, Vol. 2 at 11.
[37]
Rollo, Vol. 1 at 119.chanrobles virtual law library
[38]
Ducat, Jr. v. Villalon, Jr., 337 SCRA 622 [2000].
[39]
TSN, February 15, 2002 at 18.chanrobles virtual law library
[40]
Vide Revised Penal Code, Article 334 where concubinage is committed
also
by a husband who cohabits with a woman who is not his wife in any other
place.
[41]
Laguitan v. Tinio, 179 SCRA 837 [1989].chanrobles virtual law library
[42]
Supra.chanrobles virtual law library
[43]
TSN, February 15, 2002 at 32-43.
[44]
31 Phil. 562 [1970].chanrobles virtual law library
[45]
Calub v. Suller, 323 SCRA 556 [2000].
[46]
Rayos-Ombac v. Rayos, 285 SCRA 93 [1998].
[47]
Pimentel, Jr. v. Llorente, 339 SCRA 154 [2000].
[48]
TSN, February 15, 2002 at 45-46.chanrobles virtual law library
[49]
TSN, February 15, 2002 at 42.chanrobles virtual law library
[50]
Brientos v. Daarol, 218 SCRA 30 [1993].
[51]
Cordova v. Cordova, 179 SCRA 680, 683 [1989].
[52]
RULES OF COURT, Rule 138, Section 27.
[53]
Vide Laguitan v. Tinio, supra.
chan
robles virtual law library |