This appeared to the moral lesson the Supreme Court wanted Alfredo Castillo to learn after he was indefinitely suspended from lawyering for refusing to support a child he fathered with a woman other than his wife.
The SC ruling stemmed from a complaint filed by Carmela Aguirre (not her real name) who claimed Castillo courted her sometime in 1996 when they were both employed at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
Relenting to Castillo’s supposed promises of love and marriage, Aguirre claimed she gave in to Castillo’s suit and eventually found herself pregnant shortly before Castillo passed the Bar on May 10, 1997, according to the SC record of the case.
The record showed that Aguirre claimed she did not know Castillo was married until his wife went to the NBI shortly before the Bar results came out and confronted her about the relationship.
Apparently unpracticed in his new profession, Castillo signed on Sept. 10, 1997, an affidavit admitting the affair and promising to support the still unborn child who was born three months later.
But Aguirre claimed Castillo refused to support his child although he acknowledged his paternal obligations in a handwritten letter, dated March 12, 1998.
Castillo even denied Aguirre’s claim by arguing that Aguirre consented to the affair although she allegedly knew he was married. He even claimed Aguirre was seeing other men and that he merely signed the affidavit to save her from embarrassment.
Castillo even argued in court that "men by nature are polygamous" and that what happened between them was "mutual lust and desire."
But the High Court, noting that Castillo incriminated himself via a signed affidavit, was not convinced and said it was "appalled at the reprehensible, amoral attitude of (Castillo)."
"We must stress that membership in the bar is privilege burdened with conditions," the SC said in a 10-page en banc decision.
The High Court assailed Castillo for conduct "so willful, flagrant, or shameless as to show indifference to the opinion of good and respectable members of the community."
The SC pointed out that fathering a child with a women other than his wife is conduct way below the standards of morality required of every lawyer.
The High Court ruled that Castillo should be disciplined as lawyers must continuously possess good moral behavior as they practice the profession, which is a privilege bestowed by the state on those who are qualified.
"The suspension shall last until such time that respondent is able to show, to the full satisfaction of the Court, that he had instilled in himself a firm conviction of maintaining moral integrity and uprightness required of every member of the profession," the SC ruled.
Fortunately for Castillo, the SC said the mitigating circumstance that Castillo broke off his affair with Aguirre in 1997 and now lives with his wife in Mindoro precluded his permanent disbarment.