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Republic of the Philippines


SUPREME COURT
Manila

IN BANC

AC No. 109 August 24, 1954

JULIAN A. CRESPO AND OTHER, denunciates,


vs.
LUIS E. AMURAO, appealed.

D. Cecilio Garcia on behalf of the complainants.


D. Eligio G. Lagman in representation of the respondent.

PABLO, J .:

It is an administrative complaint filed by Commander Julian A. Crespo and Captain Valentin F. Escutin, both of the
Philippine Army, against lawyer Luis E. Amurao, who is accused of having tried to collect from the Vda. of Mabesa
the amounts of P350 to be delivered to said offices in compensation to their works when they "have never requested
nor insinuated to the herein respondent, that they are compensated in any amount, much less the aforementioned
amounts, for having acted favorably, by way of a legal opinion, on the retirement claim filed by Mrs. Mabesa with the
armed Forces of the Philippines, which was referred to legal comment and recommendation to the Judge Advocate
General's Office, whereat your petitioners are on duty. "

In his answer the appellant alleges that the "ADMITS that the complainants never requested the respondent for any
compensation for what they have done in the posthumous retirement claim of Mrs. Remedios Fuentes de Mabesa,
and that the respondent never insinuated such a thing to Mrs. Remedies Sources of Mabesa or to anybody, but it is
only a sort of reminder to Mrs. Remedios Sources of Mabesa having the same plan and promise to pay the
respondent, and, reciprocate the complaints in an amount not exceeding P350 for Major Julian A. Crespo and P150
for Captain, Valentin E. Escutin "and, as defense, alleges that he acted" without the least intention of casting
malicious aspersions on the honesty, integrity, reputation and honor of the herein petitioners "and that" he was
merely exercising his duty, his fidelity,as a lawyer by being fair and honest with the exercise of his profession, fair
and honest always to his clients (Mrs. Remedios Fuentes de Mabesa.) "

On July 10, 1951 the appellant went to the house of the Vda. of Mabesa and, as he was absent, he left in the power
of the mother a note of the following tenor:

from the desk of LE AMURAO


Attorney P1,000.00
Major Crespo 350.00
Captain Escutin 150.00
P1,500.00
"c / o Mrs. Mabesa
Justified expenses for the case "Atty. Amurao
"(See you at home) (See back) "

The following appears on the back of the note:

CONFIDENTIAL July 10, 1951


Mrs. Mabesa -
I played mahjong last night with Major Crespo - am removed embarrassed
by now, for our promise may be getting late. You know our words to him,
before. I wish you can accommodate us, now.
Thanks
Luis
Confidential
My job with Capt. Sources is still uncertain
Luis

When the widow learned of the content of the note, she went to Camp Murphy to see if it was true that the
commander and the captain charged, through attorney Amurao, the amount of P500. As the two officers had not
required the lawyer Amurao to pay said amounts, nor had they received any offer of any amount, in payment of their
services, they presented the complaint in this file.

In the investigation, the respondent stated that he helped the Vda. of Mabesa in her claim for the retirement of her
late husband, Lieutenant Mabesa; that she promised to pay him as P1,500 fees, an amount she had not yet paid;
that after talking about the matter with Commander Crespo and Captain Escutin in the office of Judge Advocate
General, Camp Murphy, el, Vda. Mabesa and colleagues came down from the building and arriving at the car Vda.
Mabesa said to the respondent: "You better go back upstairs and tell Major Crespo and Captain Escutin that I will
not forget them for whatever help they could give me in connection with my claim"; that she would give them P500;
that the appellant went up but did not transmit the desire of the widow because they were dealing with an official
matter and thought it was improper, saying only that the Vda. Mabesa would not forget them; that when you get to
the car the Vda. Mabesa asked him what he had said to these officers, and then he repeated what he had told them
and, as she was not happy and insisted that he transmit and promise to reward them, the respondent went up again;
but when he reached the top, he did not dare to transmit it, but asked Comandante Crespo if he played mahjong,
and when he answered yes, I invited him to play the following Saturday. When they met in the game already agreed
was when the respondent transmitted the promise of the widow, saying: Mrs. Mabesa wants to request you give
special attention to her case and she will not forget you and Captain Escutin "; recurred he lost P36, and at seven
o'clock at night the game ended; that in the last week of June the respondent received a note from the Vda. of
Mabesa begging him to visit her because the check she had received could not be charged for any defect; that he
went to his home, then to the office of the Government Service Insurance System and the Civil Service so that a
certain spelling error could be corrected in some paper in which the name of the deceased was erroneously written
as Mabasa instead of Mabesa, and corrected the mistake, he handed the papers to her; that after attending a family
reunion in Cale Pepin on July 8, the victim and his wife visited the Vda. of Mabesa, and on that occasion it said: "It is
oly a matter of one or two days and I will withdraw for you and I will go to your place to compensate you for what you
have done for me, etc." of Mabesa begging him to visit her because the check she had received could not be
charged for any defect; that he went to his home, then to the office of the Government Service Insurance System
and the Civil Service so that a certain spelling error could be corrected in some paper in which the name of the
deceased was erroneously written as Mabasa instead of Mabesa, and corrected the mistake, he handed the papers
to her; that after attending a family reunion in Cale Pepin on July 8, the victim and his wife visited the Vda. of
Mabesa, and on that occasion it said: "It is oly a matter of one or two days and I will withdraw for you and I will go to
your place to compensate you for what you have done for me, etc." of Mabesa begging him to visit her because the
check she had received could not be charged for any defect; that he went to his home, then to the office of the
Government Service Insurance System and the Civil Service so that a certain spelling error could be corrected in
some paper in which the name of the deceased was erroneously written as Mabasa instead of Mabesa, and
corrected the mistake, he handed the papers to her; that after attending a family reunion in Cale Pepin on July 8, the
victim and his wife visited the Vda. of Mabesa, and on that occasion it said: "It is oly a matter of one or two days and
I will withdraw for you and I will go to your place to compensate you for what you have done for me, etc." that he
went to his home, then to the office of the Government Service Insurance System and the Civil Service so that a
certain spelling error could be corrected in some paper in which the name of the deceased was erroneously written
as Mabasa instead of Mabesa, and corrected the mistake, he handed the papers to her; that after attending a family
reunion in Cale Pepin on July 8, the victim and his wife visited the Vda. of Mabesa, and on that occasion it said: "It is
oly a matter of one or two days and I will withdraw for you and I will go to your place to compensate you for what you
have done for me, etc." that he went to his home, then to the office of the Government Service Insurance System
and the Civil Service so that a certain spelling error could be corrected in some paper in which the name of the
deceased was erroneously written as Mabasa instead of Mabesa, and corrected the mistake, he handed the papers
to her; that after attending a family reunion in Cale Pepin on July 8, the victim and his wife visited the Vda. of
Mabesa, and on that occasion it said: "It is oly a matter of one or two days and I will withdraw for you and I will go to
your place to compensate you for what you have done for me, etc." then to the office of the Government Service
Insurance System and the Civil Service to correct a spelling error in some paper in which the name of the deceased
was wrongly spelled as Mabasa instead of Mabesa, and corrected the error, the papers to her; that after attending a
family reunion in Cale Pepin on July 8, the victim and his wife visited the Vda. of Mabesa, and on that occasion it
said: "It is oly a matter of one or two days and I will withdraw for you and I will go to your place to compensate you
for what you have done for me, etc." then to the office of the Government Service Insurance System and the Civil
Service to correct a spelling error in some paper in which the name of the deceased was wrongly spelled as Mabasa
instead of Mabesa, and corrected the error, the papers to her; that after attending a family reunion in Cale Pepin on
July 8, the victim and his wife visited the Vda. of Mabesa, and on that occasion it said: "It is oly a matter of one or
two days and I will withdraw for you and I will go to your place to compensate you for what you have done for me,
etc."

Probably because he did not appear in his house as he had promised on July 8, the respondent went to Vda. of
Mabesa in 10 of the same month: but since he was not there, I leave the transcribed note. This note is self-
explanatory. The appellant tried to charge his fees and the compensation that - according to - the Vda. Mabesa had
promised to give officers Crespo and Escutin even when these two officers had not asked for it.

There is no evidence against Captain Escutin regarding the presumed promise of the Vda. of Mabesa.

Comandante Crespo, answering a question in the investigation on the note, said:

I wish to state, your Honor, that all this allegation here is a pure manufacture. I have never played mahjong
with Atty. Amurao as indicated in this letter. As a matter of fact, I was investigated by Col. Salcedo and as a
result it was proven that I was the duty officer in Camp Murphy on that day and I slept in the office during that
time. (p.33 transcript).

Q. Did you at any time tell Atty. Amurao that you expect a portion of whatever reward or fee that he will get
from Mrs. Mabesa? - "A. Never; I think that his affidavit executed before an MIS agent will bear me out
because in that statement Attorney Amurao stated that I have never asked nor insinuated from him that I will
be paid or compensated in connection with the processing of the retirement claim of Mrs. Mabesa. " (Page 34
transcript)

Commander Crespo was the duty officer in the Judge Advocate General's Office at Camp Murphy, and had spent
the night in that office (Annex "C-1"); he could not, therefore, have been able to play majhong with the appellant on
the night of July 9, 1951. Because this exhibit puts him in a bad place, the respondent stated that the words "Last
night", used in the note, do not they refer to the night before he wrote it, but to one night in June when he played
mahjong with Comandante Crespo; who wrote the note in the house of the widow on 11 and not 10, and that the
word "him" of the confidential note refers to Comandante Crespo and the words "you can accommodate us" refer to
him and his lady because He wanted to collect his fees and what the widow owed his wife.

If she was the one who promised to pay P1,500 to the respondent for fees, why did she only collect P1,000 through
Exhibit A? If it is true that Vda. of Mabesa was the one who had promised to pay the amounts specified in the note,
the respondent would have said it clearly: he would not have used the words "justified expenses for the case", which
show that she had no intervention in fixing the amounts because they were, according to him, expenses justified by
the nature of the services rendered. She was the one who voluntarily and insistently offered to give those amounts,
she would not have complained to the two officers: she would have been ashamed before them, before the
appellant and before herself.

Finally, the respondent stated the following:

Q. Did you tell Major Crespo and Captain Escutin that your client, Mrs. Mabesa, wanted to reciprocate their
help at the rate of P350 for Major Crespo and P150 for Captain Escutin, or if not in cash in articles? - "A.
Never."

Force is to conclude that the promises of reward to the officers, attributed to the widow, were not true; they were
pure invention of the respondent in order to obtain money from it.

The alleged fidelity to his client, invoked by the respondent in his answer; it does not make him less guilty; Unlike;
aggravates your situation. Assuming for a moment - and only to submit to a process of assessment the behavior of
the respondent - that the widow of Mabesa has promised to give something to the two officers in return for their work
,? Was the respondent, as a lawyer, obliged to transmit this promise? Did not know that it is prohibited to offer gifts
to public officials in consideration of the fulfillment of a duty attached to their position? The respondent, instead of
being legal counsel to his client, accept in this case to be his simple instrument to corrupt two public officials. It
should be his obligation, as a lawyer, to tell his client that it is forbidden to give compensation to said officials.
Lawyer,

The plain and simple truth is that the respondent wanted to collect P1,500, pretending that the P1,000 were for him
and the P500 for the two officers of the Philippine army, who have been questioned. If the widow had not had
enough civic value to find out from these two officers the truth about the content of the note and had paid the
amounts that had been requested, the appellant would have appeared as a model of generosity because he would
reduce his fees to P1,000 and, with the P500, he rewarded the aforementioned officers. The widow, for her part,
would have said that she had paid P1,000 to her lawyer and P500 to the two officers, and, because of an act of
imposture on the accused, the public unfairly labeled the two officers as corrupt.

There is no doubt that the respondent infringed the professional ethics. He is disqualified from practicing as a
lawyer.
Paras, Pres., Bengzon, Padilla, Montemayor, Reyes, A. Jugo, Baptist Angelo, Labrador, Concepcion and Reyes,
JBL, MM., Are satisfied.

The Lawphil Project - Arellano Law Foundation

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