The protection of women and children extends to the cleansing of the ranks of lawyers with the audacity to evade the duty to support one’s family and who violate court directives, including those who unlawfully conceal properties beyond the reach of their families and the courts.
Thus ruled the Supreme Court En Banc in a Per Curiam Decision imposing the supreme penalty of disbarment on then Atty. Wilfredo A. Ruiz for economic and emotional abuse; gross immorality; committing falsehood and exploiting court processes; unduly delaying a case; impeding the execution of a judgment; and misusing court processes.
In ordering Ruiz’s disbarment, the Court underscored that “membership in the Bar is a privilege burdened with conditions,” adding that such membership “can be withdrawn where circumstances concretely show the lawyer’s lack of essential qualifications required of them, including good moral character.”
“A high sense of morality, honesty, and fair dealing is expected and required of members of the Bar. They must conduct themselves with great propriety, and their behavior must be beyond reproach anywhere and at all times,”
stressed the Court.
Such conduct is affirmed in the CPR, which lawyers, including Ruiz, vowed to uphold.
Ruiz, however, was found to have violated the foregoing provisions of the CPR when he committed multiple, immoral, deceitful, and dishonest acts for abusing court processes and misusing his knowledge of the law so he could repeatedly evade the writ of execution for his child’s support. The Court held that Ruiz, for eight years, “systematically used bogus addresses throughout the trial court proceedings so court processes and services could not be legally served on him. As a lawyer, he ought to understand what a writ of execution is and the final and immediately executory character of the order of support.”
Read more at https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/sc-disbars-lawyer-who-refused-to-provide-child-support/. Read the Decision in full at https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/13132-teodora-altobano-ruiz-vs-attys-wilfredo-a-ruiz-cherry-anne-dela-cruz-and-francisco-s-benedicto-iii/.
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