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[G.R. No. 150797.� July 25, 2005]
TAN vs. SY
THIRD DIVISION
Sirs/Mesdames:
Quoted hereunder, for your information, is a resolution of this Court dated JUL 25 2005.
G.R. No. 150797 (Iluminada Tan, Sps. Julian Sy and Rosa Tan, Zenaida Tan, and Ma. Emma Sy vs. Bartolome Sy, Rosalino Sy, Florecita Sy, Rolando Sy, Lourdes Sy, Rosauro Sy, Julieta Sy, and Rosita Ferrera-Sy.)
G.R. No. 114217 (Sps. Jose Sy Bang and Iluminada Tan, Sps. Julian Sy and Rosa Tan, Zenaida Sy, Maria Emma Sy and Oscar Sy vs. The Hon. Court of Appeals, Rolando Sy, Rosalino Sy, Lucio Sy, Enrique Sy, Rosauro Sy, Bartolome Sy, Florecita Sy, Lourdes Sy, Julieta Sy and Rosia Ferrera-Sy.)
Before the Court are the following:
a) Respondents' May 4, 2005 Motion [1] cralaw for issuance of an order requiring petitioners to deposit with the cashier of this Court the widow's allowance of respondent Rosita Ferrera-Sy.
b) Petitioners' April 30, 2005 Motion for Reconsideration with Prayer for Clarification [2] cralaw (of this Court's Resolution of April 4, 2005 [3] cralaw );
c) Respondents' May 10, 2005 Motion for Leave to file Opposition to Motion fore Reconsideration and Opposition to Motion for Reconsideration; [4] cralaw
d) Respondents' Motion for Execution [5] cralaw of the Court's Resolution of April 4, 2005; and
e) Petitioner Rosa Tan-Sy's Pormal na Kahilingang Mabigyang Konsiderasyon ang Resolusyon ng Kataastaasang Hukuman-na may petsang Abril 4, 2005. [6] cralaw
Being interrelated, the foregoing incidents shall be resolved jointly.
For a better understanding of the incidents, it bears recalling that -
1. In a
Resolution dated September 23, 1996, the Court, acting on respondents' Motion
for Payment of Widow's Allowance, to which a comment and reply to comment
were filed by the parties, orders the petitioners "TO PAY
jointly�
and severally private respondent Rosita Ferrera-Sy the sum P25,000.00 as
'widow's allowance' to be taken from the estate of Sy Bang effective September
1, 1996 and every month thereafter until the estate of Sy Bang is finally
settled, or until further orders of this Court"; and
2.� In a Resolution
dated April 4, 2005, the Court, acting on respondents' Motion to Order
Deposit in Court of Supreme Court's Ordered Widow Allowance Effective September
23, 1999 and Upon Faiure of Petitioner's Julian Sy, et al. to Comply Therewith
to Order Their Imprisonment Until Compliance, finds and so holds
petitioners "
GUILTY
of contempt of this Court and are
collectively sentenced to pay a FINE equivalent to ten (10%) percent of
the total amount due and unpaid to Rosita Ferrera-Sy by way of a widow's
allowance pursuant to this Court's Resolution of September 13, 1996, and
accordingly ORDERS their immediate imprisonment until they shall have
complied with said Resolution by paying Rosita Ferrera-Sy the amount of TWO
MILLION SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED PESOS (P2,600,100.00), representing
her total accumulated unpaid widow's allowance from September, 1996 to April,
2005 at the rate of TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND PESOS (P25,000.00) a month,� plus
six (6%) percent interest thereon", and further "
DIRECTS
petitioners
to faithfully pay Rosita Ferrera-Sy her monthly widow's allowance for the
succeeding months as they fall due, under pain of imprisonment". This
Resolution of April 4, 2005, declares itself as "immediately
EXECUTORY".
Now, to the incidents:
In their motion for
reconsideration (Item [b] hereof), petitioners insist that they had already
paid Rosita Ferrera-Sy her widow's allowance as ordered by this Court in its
September 23, 1996 Resolution when the late Josy Sy Bang (wife of Iluminada
Tan) gave Rosita One Million Pesos (P1,000,000.00) and a residential lot
with a market value of One Million Pesos (P1,000.00) on August 29, 1996.
The Court finds no merit in the motion for reconsideration as the issues raised therein had long been duly resolved and settled by this Court in its Resolution of September 23, 1996. The Court notes petitioners' propensity to resort to delaying maneuvers to evade compliance with said resolution which had long been final and executory.
It may be relevant to take into consideration, together with the subject motion for reconsideration, petitioner Rosa Tan-Sy's "Pormal na Kahilingan" (item [e] hereof), in relation to this Court's Resolution of April 4, 2005. This petitioner alleged, among others, that like respondent Rosita Ferrera-Sy, she is also already sickly and advanced in years, thereby impliedly seeking this Court's compassion not to enforce the order of imprisonment embodied in the Resolution of April 4, 2005 as this might probably cut short her remaining years.
The compassion presently sought by Rosa Tan-Sy is the very same compassion which had been one of the basis, aside from other factual and legal grounds, of this Court's Resolution of September 23, 1996, a resolution which Rosa's father-in-law, the late Jose Sy Bang, and Rosa's late husband, Julian Sy, had successfully and contumaciously delayed compliance with up to the present. Be it noted that the imprisonment ordered by this Court in its Resolution of April 4, 2005 is to be enforced only if the parties concerned continue to disobey and disregard the final and executory September 23, 1996 Resolution of this Court. It they fully comply therewith, Rosa Tan-Sy and her co-petitioners have no reason to fear imprisonment.
In the same Kahilingan, petitioner Rosan Tan-Sy invites attention to their Chinese culture whereby only� the male members of the clan have the full and absolute control of the family's businesses, in effect saying that all female members of the clan have no control at all over Sy Bang's estate.
While the Court respects the cultures of the various nationalities, it must nonetheless stress, however, that the Court is bound by the rule of "principia, non hominess" (the rule of law, not of men) [7] cralaw . Under governing laws of this land, men and women are treated equally, irrespective of cultural backgrounds. While Philippine laws on succession and inheritance guarantee to petitioners their right to the properties left by the late Jose Sy Bang, it is equally true, however, that under the laws of this land, petitioners are duty-bound to comply with whatever the courts, in relation to such properties, may order.
Given respondent Rosita Ferrera-Sy's urgent need for support in view of her advanced age and condition, and the petitioners' obvious resort to dilatory tactics in the matter of complying with this Court's Resolutions of September 23,1996 and April 4, 2005, the Court deems it proper to grant respondents' motion for execution (Item [d] hereof), and to directly implement its Resolution of April 4, 2005 without need of remanding it to the lower court. The Court likewise grants respondents' motion to deposit with the Court's cashier (Item [a] hereof) the lumpsum amount stated in said Resolution of April 4, 2005, as well as the monthly widow's allowance from May 2005 onwards.
WHEREFORE, the Court resolves, as follows:
a) Respondents' Motion
dated May 4, 2005 for issuance of an order requiring petitioners to deposit
with this Court's cashier the widow's allowance is hereby GRANTED, and
petitioners are accordingly ordered to deposit with the cashier of this Court
within five (5) days from notice hereof the accured unpaid monthly widow's
allowance of respondent Rosita Ferrera-Sy in the amount of P2,600,100.00
as of April, 2005, with interest thereon at the rate of 6% per annum, and
thereafter her monthly widow's allowance as it falls due.
b) Petitioners' Motion for Reconsideration with Prayer for Clarification of this Court's Resolution of April 4, 2005, is DENIED with finality;
c) Respondents' Motion for Leave to file Opposition, etc., dated May 10, 2005 is GRANTED, and the opposition therein incorporated it treated as their comment by way of compliance with this Court's Resolution of June 20, 2005, requiring them to comment on petitioners' motion for reconsideration.
d) Respondents' Motion for Execution of this Court's Resolution of April 4, 2005, is hereby GRANTED �and the immediate imprisonment of petitioners Iluminada Tan, Zenaida Zy, Ma. Emma Sy and Rosa Tan is ordered should they fail to comply with paragraph [a] hereof within the time therein specified.
e) Petitioner Rosa Tan-Sy's Pormal na Kahilingang Mabigyang Konsideration ang Resolusyon ng Kataastaasang Hukuman na may petsang Abril 4, 2005 is merely NOTED.
SO ORDERED.
Very truly yours,
(Sgd.) LUCITA ABJELINA-SORIANO
Clerk of Court
Endnotes:
[1] cralaw Rollo, pp. 804-807.
[2] cralaw Rollo, pp. 772-783.
[3] cralaw The said resolution ordered, among others, the immediate imprisonment until they shall have complied with this Court's Resolution of September 13, 1996, by paying Rosita Ferrera-Sy the amount of TWO MILLION SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED PESOS (
P2,600,100.00), representing her total accumulated unpaid widow's allowance from September, 1996 up to April, 2005, at the rate of TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND PESOS (P25,000.00) a month plus six percent (6%) interest thereon, and further directing petitioners to faithfully pay Rosita Ferrera-Sy her monthly widow's allowance for the succeeding months as they fall due, under pain of imprisonment.[4] cralaw Rollo, pp. 816-818.
[5] cralaw Rollo, pp. 820-824.
[6] cralaw Rollo, 808-814.
[7] cralaw Virata vs. Sandiganbayan, G.R. No. 114331, May 27, 1997.
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