SC disbars lawyer who faked court decision

The Supreme Court (SC) has disbarred a lawyer who faked a court decision to "deceive" a client who had sought his services for a marriage annulment.

Dionisio B. Apoya, Jr. was ordered stricken off the Roll of Attorneys on July 3 after being found to have violated the mandate for lawyers not to engage in deceitful conduct and not to abet acts that defy the law, the SC Public Information Office said in a statement on Friday.

The high tribunal also said Apoya violated the 2004 Rules on Notarial Practice when he notarized the verification and certification of non-forum shopping of the annulment petition he was hired to draft without the presence of his client.

The case began in 2011 when Apoya accepted a marriage annulment case for one Leah Taday, then working in Norway. Apoya drafted a petition for annulment of marriage, notarized it, and filed it before a Caloocan court, the SC statement said.

On vacation in the Philippines on Nov. 17, 2011, Taday received from Apoya a decision, promulgated the day prior by a certain Judge Ma. Eliza Becamon-Angeles, that purportedly granted the annulment.

Growing suspicious, Taday verified the validity of the decision and found that Angeles, the supposed judge, and Branch 162, her supposed sala, "do not exist."

Taday, through her parents, then sought Apoya's withdrawal as legal counsel from the case, but the now-disbarred attorney instead asked to withdraw the petition itself, a move that was granted by the court's Branch 131, the SC said.

When his attention was called by Taday's new lawyer, the SC said Apoya denied delivering both the purportedly fake decision and the motion to withdraw the petition, saying he only drafted the letter, gave it to Taday's parents, but never signed it.

But the SC, adopting the findings of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Commission on Bar Discipline and agreeing with its recommendation to disbar, still concluded Apoya wrote the fake decision "to deceive" Taday, resulting in injuries and "tarnishing the noble image of the legal profession."

The SC found Apoya to have violated Canon 1, Rule 1.01 and Rule 1.02 of the Code of Professional Responsibility and Section 2, Rule IV of the 2004 Rules of Notarial Practice, the statement said.

“[R]espondent committed unlawful, dishonest, immoral and deceitful conduct, and lessened the confidence of the public in the legal system. Instead of being an advocate of justice, he became a perpetrator of injustice. His reprehensible acts do not merit him to remain the rolls of the legal profession. Thus, the ultimate penalty of disbarment must be imposed upon him,” the SC held. —Nicole-Anne C. Lagrimas/KBK, GMA News