Case Digest (A.C. No. 13054)
Facts:
Josephine R. Ong v. Atty. Salvador M. Bijis, A.C. No. 13054 (Formerly CBD Case No. 07-2039), November 23, 2021, Supreme Court First Division, Caguioa, J., writing for the Court.Complainant Josephine R. Ong filed an administrative complaint before the Integrated Bar of the Philippines–Commission on Bar Discipline (IBP‑CBD) against respondent Atty. Salvador M. Bijis for notarizing two Special Powers of Attorney (SPAs) and a real estate mortgage in 2006 despite the fact that some persons whose names appeared as signatories were already deceased. Ong alleged that three persons (Canlas, Puntual, and Dacuycuy) solicited a loan from her and produced original duplicate copies of the titles to two parcels of land, two SPAs (one purporting to be by Catalino C. Sayon and Donata Cajes Sayon, the other by Simeon/Simon Enoch and Felisa N. Enoch), and a real estate mortgage; Ong gave P95,000 in cash and check in exchange for the mortgage documents.
Ong received the notarized real estate mortgage and later learned (in February 2007) from neighbors and barangay officials that the purported registered owners (Sayon, Donata, and Enoch) had died long before 2006. Ong charged that her signature on the mortgage was forged or that the instrument had been pre‑signed and notarized without the parties actually appearing before the notary.
In his Answer, Atty. Bijis admitted notarizing the SPAs and the mortgage but asserted that the persons before him acknowledged they were the same persons whose signatures appeared and that they presented residence certificates and certificates of title; he claimed he did not personally know the named affiants and maintained that impostors must have posed as the landowners. He also characterized the incident as his first unfortunate experience in some 35 years of practice.
No party attended the mandatory IBP‑CBD conference; the Investigating Commissioner submitted a Report and Recommendation (Oct. 31, 2019) recommending revocation of Atty. Bijis’s notarial commission and a two‑year disqualification from being commissioned as notary, together with a two‑year suspension from being a notary public (and a suspension from practice recommended later by the IBP‑BOG). The IBP Board of Governors (IBP‑BOG), by Resolution dated February 28, 2020, approved and modified the Investigating Commissioner’s recommendation: it revoked Atty. Bijis’s notarial commission, disqualified him from appointment as notary public for two years, and recommended suspension from the practice of law for six months, while noting his candor and that this was his first offense.
...(Subscriber-Only)Issues:
- Did the IBP correctly find that Atty. Salvador M. Bijis was administratively liable for violating the 2004 Rules on Notarial Practice (and related provisions of the Code of Professional Responsibility) in notarizing the SPAs and the real...(Subscriber-Only)
Ruling:
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Ratio:
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Doctrine:
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