A.M. No. 343-MJ - Negre vs. Rivera

A letter dated December 21, 1972, from Director Jolly R. Bugarin of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) recommended that Municipal Judge Felix A. Rivera of Bacarra, Ilocos Norte, be administratively charged for performing an illegal marriage ceremony.
The controversy arose from a marriage contract allegedly signed on September 5, 1972, between:

Corazon Negre of Magsingal, Ilocos Sur (born May 7, 1954)
Amado Orpilla, a married man and vocational school teacher from Allacapan, Cagayan, who was also accused of raping Miss Negre on August 28, 1972, in Laoag City.

Prior to the signing of the contract, both Corazon Negre and Amado Orpilla filed applications for a marriage license with the local civil registrar of Bacarra.
The marriage license was not issued because Orpilla had misrepresented himself as single, while in reality he was already married.
Despite the pending license application, the marriage contract was signed on September 5, 1972 and postdated September 15, 1972—the date by which the ten-day waiting period for the issuance of the license was expected to lapse.

An assistant provincial fiscal filed an information on March 31, 1973, before the Court of First Instance of Ilocos Norte (Criminal Case No. 183-II), charging Judge Rivera with performing an illegal marriage ceremony in violation of Article 352 of the Revised Penal Code.
In a reinvestigation, Judge Rivera contended that:

He merely signed the marriage contract without conducting any marriage ceremony.
He retained all copies of the executed contract without furnishing them to the parties or the local civil registrar.
He did not claim the two-peso solemnization fee and advised the parties to secure the necessary marriage license.

The fiscal filed a motion to dismiss the information on the ground that there was no prima facie case against the judge, leading to the dismissal of the criminal charge on May 24, 1973.

On April 30, 1976, this Court issued a resolution directing Judge Rivera to show cause why he should not be removed or suspended from office under Section 97 of the Judiciary Law, emphasizing that the dismissal of the criminal charge did not erase the irregularity of signing a marriage contract without a valid license.
In his manifestation dated May 18, 1976, Judge Rivera explained that:

His action in signing the contract was done in good faith and for the convenience of the parties, influenced by the plea of Mrs. Rosalina Negre (the mother of Corazon Negre) for her daughter’s protection.
He clearly stated that the marriage would need to be solemnized once the required marriage license was obtained, and his actions were intended merely as an interim measure.
He noted that, during his tenure since August 3, 1970, this was the only instance in which he signed a marriage contract without conducting an actual marriage ceremony.

Despite his explanation and the dismissal of the criminal case, the Court found that his conduct was still irregular as it deviated from the proper legal process.

Whether Judge Rivera’s signing of the marriage contract without a valid marriage license, and without actually performing a marriage ceremony, constituted an irregular and negligent exercise of his official duties.
Whether the absence of malice in his actions and the prior dismissal of the criminal case were sufficient to absolve him from administrative sanctions under the Judiciary Law.
Whether the practice of signing an incomplete marriage contract, intended only to facilitate later compliance, undermines the integrity of judicial procedures and merits formal disciplinary action.