UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES COLLEGE OF LAW Law 120 – Legal Profession
E2024 Professor Jardeleza
Zaguirre v. Atty. Castillo
A.C. No. 4921 – March 6, 2003
En banc | Per curiam
Article/s Invoked:
Rule 7.03 - A lawyer shall not engage in conduct that adversely reflects on his fitness to practice law, nor
should he, whether in public or private life, behave in a scandalous manner to the discredit of the legal
profession."
FACTS OF THE CASE
• Petition for disbarment against Atty. Alfredo Castillo on the ground of gross immoral conduct.
• 1996 – Complainant and respondent met when they became officemates at the NBI. Respondent
courted and promised to marry complainant while representing himself to be single. They soon started
dating until 1997. During the affair, respondent was preparing for the bar, which he passed.
• May 10, 1997 – respondent was admitted as a member of the Bar. Around the first week of the same
month, complainant learned that respondent was in fact married after his wife went to complainant’s
office and confronted her about their relationship.
• September 10, 1997 – Castillo executed an affidavit admitting his relationship with Zaguirre and
recognizing the unborn child she was carrying as his.
• December 9, 1997 – Zaguirre gave birth to a girl. By this time, Castillo had started to refuse
recognizing the child and giving her any support.
• Castillo claimed that he never courted Zaguirre, but only shared mutual lust and desire; that he never
represented himself as single since it was known in the NBI that he was already married with children;
that Zaguirre knew this; that the child she bore is not his, because Zaguirre was seeing other men
during their affair.
o Castillo admitted to signing the affidavit, but explained that it was only to save Zaguirre from
embarrassment. Also, he did not know at the time that she was seeing other men.
• IBP Commission on Bar Discipline found Castillo guilty of gross immoral conduct and recommended
that he be indefinitely suspended.
ISSUE/S & RATIO/S
W/N Castillo is guilty of gross immoral conduct—YES.
• Siring a child with a woman other than his wife is a conduct way below the standards of morality
required of every lawyer. Castillo’s attempts to renege on his notarized statement recognizing and
undertaking to support his child demonstrates a certain unscrupulousness on his part which is highly
censurable, unbecoming a member of a noble profession.
o Court is appalled at the reprehensible, amoral attitude of Castillo, who sought understanding
from the Court, saying that “men by nature are polygamous” and their relationship was only
one of mutual lust and desire.
o His claims that he did not use deception to win Zaguirre’s affection, but even if Zaguirre knew
of his marital status, it does not absolve him of gross immorality because it is his fitness to be
a member of the legal profession that is being questioned, not on whether the other party
knowingly engaged in an immoral relationship with him. The defense of in pari delicto is not
feasible.
• Since Castillo was preparing to take the bar when the illicit relationship began, it cannot be said that
he did not know that an applicant for admission to membership in the bar must show that he is
possessed of a good moral character, which is also essential to maintain good standing in the
profession. Admission to the bar does not preclude a subsequent judicial inquiry into any question
concerning his mental or moral fitness before he became a lawyer, because admission to practice
creates a rebuttable presumption that he has all qualifications to become a lawyer.
UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES COLLEGE OF LAW Law 120 – Legal Profession
E2024 Professor Jardeleza
o That Castillo repeatedly engaged in sexual congress with a woman not his wife and now refuses
to recognize and support a child whom he previously recognized, the Court found that he
violated the standards of morality required of the legal profession.
• Because the Court did not perceive any indication of Castillo’s effort to mend his ways or that he
recognized the impact of his offense on the noble profession of law, the Court decided to indefinitely
suspend him until he is able to show, to the full satisfaction of the Court, that he has instilled in himself
a firm conviction of maintaining moral integrity and uprightness required of every member of the
profession.
RULING
Castillo GUILTY of gross immoral conduct and ordered to suffer INDEFINITE SUSPENSION from the
practice of law.
