Case Digest (G.R. No. 125901)
Facts:
Edgardo A. Tijing and Bienvenida R. Tijing v. Court of Appeals (Seventh Division) and Angelita Diamante, G.R. No. 125901, March 08, 2001, Supreme Court Second Division, Quisumbing, J., writing for the Court.Petitioners Edgardo A. Tijing and Bienvenida R. Tijing are husband and wife whose youngest child, Edgardo Tijing, Jr., was born on April 27, 1989 at the clinic of midwife Lourdes Vasquez in Sta. Ana, Manila. Bienvenida worked as a laundrywoman for private respondent Angelita Diamante, who frequently cared for the infant. In August 1989 Bienvenida left the four‑month old with Angelita while she went to market; when she returned both Angelita and the child had disappeared. Bienvenida made complaints to the barangay and police and later searched with her estranged husband after they reconciled, but without success.
In October 1993 Bienvenida saw a boy in Hagonoy, Bulacan, identified to her as John Thomas Lopez, whom she claimed was her missing son. She alleged Angelita refused to return the child and, with her husband, filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the Regional Trial Court (RTC) to recover the minor. At trial petitioners presented midwife Lourdes Vasquez (who testified she assisted in the delivery of an Edgardo Tijing, Jr. and produced clinic records) and Benjamin Lopez (who testified that his brother Tomas Lopez, Angelita’s common‑law husband, was sterile and had said the boy was adopted). Angelita countered that she was the child’s natural mother, claiming a birth on April 27, 1989 at a different midwife’s clinic and offering that Tomas Lopez registered the birth on August 4, 1989.
On March 10, 1995 the RTC granted the habeas corpus petition, finding that John Thomas Lopez and Edgardo Tijing, Jr. were the same person and ordering Angelita to surrender the child; the sheriff later reported peaceful turnover of custody to petitioners. Angelita appealed to the Court of Appeals (CA‑Seventh Division). On March 6, 1996 the Court of Appeals reversed the RTC, finding the evidence insufficient to establish petitioners’ maternity claim, dismissed the petition and directed that custody be returned to Angelita. Reconsideration by the CA was denied.
Petitioners then brought the case to th...(Pro-only)
Issues:
- Is habeas corpus the proper remedy to recover custody of the minor?
- Are Edgardo Tijing, Jr. and John Thomas Lopez one and the same person and the child of petit...(Pro-only)
Ruling:
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Ratio:
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Doctrine:
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