THIRD DIVISION

August 31, 2016

G.R. No. 189289

GLORIA ZOLETA-SAN AGUSTIN, Petitioner
vs.
ERNESTO SALES, Respondent

D E C I S I O N

REYES, J.:

This Petition for Review on Certiorari1 under Rule 45 of the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure filed by Gloria Zoleta-San Agustin (petitioner) assails the Decision2 dated May 29, 2009 and the Resolution3 dated August 25, 2009 of the Court of Appeals (CA) in CA-G.R. CV No. 90302.

Factual Antecedents

On March 14, 1994, brothers Teodoro Sales (Teodoro) (now deceased) and Ernestp Sales (Ernesto) (collectively, the plaintiffs) filed an action for the judicial approval of their recognition as the illegitimate children of the late Louis C. Fernandez (Louis) before the Regional ;Trial Court (RTC) of Quezon City, docketed as Civil Case No. Q-94-19781 and raffled to Branch 110. 4 Subsequently, an Amended Complaint was filed on March 13, 1996, before the RTC of Quezon City, Branch 225, where it was alleged that Ernesto and Teodoro were born in Pasay City on March 20, 1948 and October 22, 1943, respectively. They are the illegitimate children of Louis and his common-law wife named Epitacia Sales (Epitacia) who was a house helper in the Fernandez household. Louis5 and his legal wife, Marie Louise Fernandez (Marie Louise)6 (Spouses Fernandez), a French national, did not have any child. According to the plaintiffs, Louis formally recognized them as his children by Epitacia in two public documents bearing his thumb marks, viz: (1) a notarized document dated November 11, 1980 jointly executed by Louis and Epitacia fonnally recognizing the plaintiffs as their children; and (2) a document solely executed by Louis on December 2, 1980, dominated as Acknowledgement of Children. 7

The plaintiffs, having no knowledge of any relatives of Spouses Fernandez, directed the action against unknown defendants. However, on May 30, 1994, the petitioner raised her opposition. She alleged in her Amended Answer filed on July 26, 1994 that she is the niece of Louis and that the Spouses Fernandez informally adopted her as their child when she was only 2 years old. She insisted that the father of the plaintiffs is Corpus Micabalo (Corpus), the former houseboy of the Fernandez household. 8

One of the principal allegations in the amended answer of the petitioner is that the documents presented by the plaintiffs to sustain the complaint were spurious. These documents of recognition were forwarded by the RTC to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for examination. Bayani Palad (Palad), a Fingerprint Examiner of the NBI, compared the thumbprint of Louis on the documents of recognition with the other documents containing his thumb marks. Thereafter, Palad concluded that all the thumbprints in the disputed documents belong to Louis.9 On February 17, 2001, the petitioner filed a motion to allow deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) Testing on Louis who already died on January 1, 1987. The RTC, in its Resolution dated June 4, 2001, denied the petitioner's motion. Subsequently, the presentation of evidence proceeded. 10

On April 15, 2002, the RTC issued an order denying the admission of the photographs presented by the petitioner seeking to prove that she was 'treated by the Spouses Fernandez as their own child. The petitioner filed a motion for reconsideration of the said order of denial, but it was denied by the RTC on July 10, 2002. 11 Thereafter, the petitioner filed a Petition for Certiorari and Prohibition before the CA ascribing grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction against the RTC judge for declaring the photographs irrelevant and immaterial to the issue of recognition submitted before the RTC. In a Decision12 dated September 29, 2003, the CA denied the petition for lack of merit. It ruled that even if the photographs were admitted, they remained to be immaterial and irrelevant to the issue of recognition of the plaintiffs as the illegitimate children of Louis.13

Teodoro died on July 23, 1997 and was substituted by his mother Epitacia who subsequently died on March 19, 2004 leaving Ernesto the lone respondent in the present case.

Ruling of the RTC

After trial on the merits, the RTC in a Decision14 dated July 12, 2007 ruled in favor of the recognition of the plaintiffs as the illegitimate children of Louis. The dispositive portion reads as follows:

WHEREFORE, premises considered, the Court hereby GRANTS plaintiffs' prayer for judicial approval of the recognition made by [Louis] during his lifetime. Accordingly, [Ernesto] and [Teodoro] (deceased) are hereby declared the illegitimate children of the deceased [Louis] with the appurtenant rights of illegitimate children under the law.

SO ORDERED. 15

The petitioner elevated the adverse judgment of the RTC before the CA. The parties filed their respective briefs. The petitioner filed her Reply Brief (with Application for DNA Testing of Louis). 16 Ernesto filed his Comment17 objecting to the proposed DNA Testing. In a Resolution18 dated February 10, 2009, the CA deferred its determination of the petitioner's application for DNA Testing.

Ruling of the CA

In a Decision19 dated May 29, 2009, the CA found the appeal devoid of merit. The CA gave due weight to the deeds of acknowledgment executed by Louis. The self-serving denial of the petitioner did not prevail over the presumption of regularity accorded to the deeds of recognition in favor of the plaintiffs. Quoted hereunder is the dispositive portion of the decision of the CA, to wit:

WHEREFORE
, the appeal is DISMISSED and the Decision dated 12 July 2007 of the [RTC], Branch 225, Quezon City in Civil Case No. Q-94-19781, is AFFIRMED in toto.

SO ORDERED.20