THIRD DIVISION
[A.M. OCA IPI No. 13-3-23-MTCC. September 11, 2013.]
ANONYMOUS LETTER-COMPLAINT AGAINST KIMBERLY M. CENSON, CLERK III, MUNICIPAL TRIAL COURT IN CITIES, LUCENA CITY, QUEZON
NOTICE
Sirs/Mesdames :
Please take notice that the Court, Third Division, issued a Resolution dated September 11, 2013, which reads as follows:
"A.M. OCA IPI No. 13-3-23-MTCC (Anonymous Letter-Complaint against Kimberly M. Censon, Clerk III, Municipal Trial Court in Cities, Lucena City, Quezon). — On May 3, 2012 the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) received a letter from a "concerned citizen," denouncing respondent Kimberly M. Censon, Clerk III of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC), as an unmarried woman having illicit relations with a married man, resulting in her becoming pregnant. The letter charged her with immorality and causing damage to the image of the judiciary. 1
The Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) asked Executive Judge Joselito P. Tamaray to conduct a discreet investigation. Judge Tamaray in turn asked the Branch 1 Clerk of Court of the MTCC of Lucena City, Marie Joy R. Encinas (BCC Encinas), to investigate the matter. 2 BCC Encinas executed an affidavit stating that she knew for a fact the truth of the charge against respondent Censon, as in fact the latter introduced to her the man who she said was her boyfriend. AaITCS
Required to comment, respondent Censon claimed that she was unaware of the man's marital status when she had relations with him. She thought he was a good person. She learned of the truth that he was married only after she became pregnant. She asked him to acknowledge the child as his but, as it happened, he declined to do so. Still, she decided to keep the child and raise it as a single parent rather than have it aborted as some had suggested. She just pleads for understanding and compassion. 3
The OCA recommended a six-month suspension without pay and a stern warning of the possibility of her dismissal should she resume her relationship with the father of her child. Even if the relationship is over, the fact is that she had entered upon it on her own volition. 4
Although the Court has in the past suspended court employees for illicit affairs, 5 such cases were attended with evidently corrupt and false purposes. 6 Here, there is no evidence that respondent Censon shamelessly carried on the affair without regard to the opinions of respectable members of the community. The malevolent intent that normally characterizes certain illicit relations is not present when the employee is unaware that her sexual partner is actually married. Unlike in Ui v. Bonifacio, 7 Kimberly ended the affair as soon as she discovered the man's marital status. A six-month suspension would not be warranted under the circumstances. A stern warning should be sufficient.
WHEREFORE, the Court STERNLY WARNS Kimberly M. Censon against resuming her illicit relationship with the father of her child or having a similar relationship in the future lest the Court shall deal with her more severely. Let a copy of this Resolution be appended to her 201 file.
SO ORDERED." HScDIC
Very truly yours,
(SGD.) LUCITA ABJELINA SORIANODivision Clerk of Court
Footnotes
1.Rollo, p. 13.
2.Id. at 9.
3.Id. at 4-5.
4.Id. at 2.
5.Regir v. Regir, A.M. No. P-06-2282, August 4, 2009, 595 SCRA 455, 463.
6.Concerned Employee v. Mayor, 486 Phil. 51, 59 (2004), citing Soberano v. Villanueva, 116 Phil. 1208, 1212 (1962).
7.Ui v. Atty. Bonifacio, 388 Phil. 691, 696 (2000).