In disbarment proceedings, the burden of proof rests on the complainant; and, considering the gravity of the penalty of disbarment or suspension as a member of the Bar, a lawyer may only be disbarred or suspended if there is clear, convincing, and satisfactory proof that he or she committed transgressions defined by the rules as grounds to strip him or her of his professional license.
In the very recent case of CONRADO G. FERNANDEZ vs. ATTY. MARIA ANGELICA P. DE RAMOS-VILLALON, A.C. No. 7084, February 27, 2009, the Philippine Supreme Court dismissed a petition for disbarment against a lawyer, for lack of merit.
Let me digest the doctrinal parts of the abovementioned decision for purposes of legal research of the visitors of this blog. Thus:
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A lawyer, as an officer of the court, has a duty to be truthful in all his dealings. However, this duty does not require that the lawyer advance matters of defense on behalf of his or her client’s opponent. A lawyer is his or her client’s advocate; while duty-bound to utter no falsehood, an advocate is not obliged to build the case for his or her client’s opponent.
The respondent’s former client, Palacios, approached her to file a complaint for the annulment of the Deed of Donation. This was the cause of action chosen by her client. Assuming arguendo that the respondent knew of the presence of the Deed of Absolute Sale, its existence, is, indeed, a matter of defense for Fernandez. We cannot fault the respondent for choosing not to pursue the nullification of the Deed of Absolute Sale. The respondent alleged that her former client, Palacios, informed her that the Deed of Absolute Sale was void for lack of consideration. Furthermore, unlike the Deed of Donation, the Deed of Absolute Sale was not registered in the Registry of Deeds and was not the basis for the transfer of title of Palacios’ property to Fernandez. Under the circumstances, it was not unreasonable for a lawyer to conclude, whether correctly or incorrectly, that the Deed of Absolute Sale was immaterial in achieving the ultimate goal – the recovery of Palacios’ property.
On the second issue, the petitioner complains that Commissioner Funa failed to consider Heredia’s affidavit of retraction. As a rule, we view retractions with caution; they can be bought and obtained through threats, intimidation, or monetary consideration. The better rule is to examine them closely by considering the original, the new statements and the surrounding circumstances, based on the rules of evidence.
The petitioner raised the retraction for the first time in his Supplemental to (sic) Reply to Comment filed with the Office of the Bar Confidant on November 10, 2006. The petitioner attached Heredia’s affidavit of December 11, 2005 and her affidavit of retraction.
In her affidavit of December 11, 2005, Heredia attested that:
1) Palacios sought her help when a syndicate attempted to grab his land;
2) she referred Palacios to the group of Castro, Fernandez, and Jimenez who were then helping her with her own legal problems;
3) she regretted having referred Palacios to this group as she herself was later “victimized by the group;
4) they made her sign blank papers after gaining her trust and confidence, which signed blanks the group later filled up to make it appear that they bought and paid for her real property;
5) she terminated the services of this group sometime in April 2005; 6) she only recently came to know of this group’s modus operandi; and 7) Palacios eventually became one of the group’s victims.
In her affidavit of retraction, Heredia basically averred that the statements in the affidavit of December 11, 2005 were prepared by Villalon who asked her, in the presence of Palacios, to sign the affidavit; that the affidavit contained lies which she rejected outright, but Palacios and the respondent convinced her that they would only use the affidavit to convince Fernandez to give additional sums of money for Palacios’ property; that Palacios admitted getting a motorcyle from Fernandez; that Palacios had been paid not less than P6,000,000.00 for his property; that the respondent and Palacios used her affidavit in the cases they filed against Fernandez; that this violated their agreement that the affidavit would only be used in their negotiations to get more money for the property; that Palacios admitted to her that he executed a Deed of Absolute Sale with Fernandez; that the execution of the Deed of Donation was his idea; that Palacios had Fernandez’ signature in the Deed of Donation forged and was regretting having done so because Fernandez filed various charges, including perjury, against him; that she executed the affidavit of retraction in the interest of justice, to tell the truth about the circumstances surrounding the affidavit of December 11, 2005, to clear her name, to show that she is not part of the lies concocted by Atty. Villalon and Palacios, and to correct the wrong that was done by the affidavit of December 11, 2005 to the persons of Conrado Fernandez, Romeo Castro, and Atty. Augusto Jimenez, Jr.
In the Mandatory Conference and Hearing held on July 4, 2007, Commissioner Funa asked the respondent, through counsel, whether she wanted to cross-examine Heredia regarding her affidavit of retraction. The respondent passed up the chance for a direct confrontation and opted to adopt her comment as her position paper. In the position paper she submitted on January 14, 2008, she attacked the credibility of Heredia’s affidavit of retraction. She posited that Heredia contradicted herself when she said that she rejected the pre-prepared contents of the first affidavit outright but still signed it; that Heredia’s claim that she had been hoodwinked into signing the first affidavit because she was assured that it was a mere scrap of paper, was unbelievable; and that Heredia failed to rebut her earlier statement that she regretted having referred Fernandez’ group to Palacios because she herself fell victim to the group.
In disbarment proceedings, the burden of proof rests on the complainant. Considering the gravity of the penalty of disbarment or suspension as a member of the Bar, a lawyer may only be disbarred or suspended if there is clear, convincing, and satisfactory proof that he or she committed transgressions defined by the rules as grounds to strip him or her of his professional license.
In this case, we find no clear evidence we can satisfactorily accept showing that the respondent improperly induced Heredia to sign the affidavit of December 11, 2005, as alleged in Heredia’s affidavit of retraction.
First, the original affidavit and the retraction stand uncorroborated by any other evidence and, in our view, stand on the same footing. Neither affidavit provides clear, convincing and satisfactory proof of what they allege. They cannot therefore stand as meritorious basis for an accusation against the respondent.
Second, the allegations in both sworn statements are so contradictory that we can only conclude that Heredia had grossly lied in either or even in both instruments. We find it incredible that Heredia, as stated in her affidavit of retraction, vehemently rejected the statements in the first affidavit, but nevertheless agreed to sign it because it would only be used to aid Palacios in his negotiations with Fernandez. Effectively, she admitted in her retraction that she had lied under oath and entered into a conspiracy to extract additional funds from Fernandez who would not have accepted the demand if they were falsely made. Why she did what she said she did is not at all clear from her retraction, which itself was not convincingly clear on why she was retracting. For this Court to accept a retraction that raises more questions than answers, made by a witness of doubtful credibility allegedly for the sake of truth, is beyond the limits of what this Court can accept.
In these lights, the retraction has no particular relevance so that the Commissioner’s failure to consider it would matter.
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