ArticuLaw Primo
LSPU-LAW STAR CLASS
GR No. 105625
Badua v. Court of Appeals
žFacts:
Petitioner, Marissa Benetiz Badua, claims to be an heir spouses Vicente Benitez and Isabel Chipongian, being the legitimate child of the spouses.
Such claim by the petitioner was done after the private respondents Victoria Benitez-Lirio and Feodor Benitez Aguilar (Vicente's sister and nephew, respectively) filed a special proceeding for the settlement of estate and administration of the same.
At the trial court, the private respondents contended that has no biological child, for their incapacity to procreate a child as testified by the obstetrician-gynecologist of Isabel.
The trial court after considering the documentary evidence submitted by the petitioner, decided in favor of the latter.
The Court of Appeals reversed the ruling of the trial court for failure to establish her status as and prove her biological and blood kinship with the aforesaid spouses.
Hence, the petitioner appealed to the Supreme Court.
Issue:
Whether or not the decision of the appellate court is proper
žRuling:
YES.At this juncture, it might be meet to mention that it has become a practice in recent times for people who want to avoid the expense and trouble of a judicial adoption to simply register the child as their supposed child in the civil registry. Perhaps Atty. Benitez, though a lawyer himself, thought that he could avoid the trouble if not the expense of adopting the child Marissa through court proceedings by merely putting himself and his wife as the parents of the child in her birth certificate. Or perhaps he had intended to legally adopt the child when she grew a little older but did not come around doing so either because he was too busy or for some other reason. But definitely, the mere registration of a child in his or her birth certificate as the child of the supposed parents is not a valid adoption, does not confer upon the child the status of an adopted child and the legal rights of such child, and even amounts of simulation of the child's birth or falsification of his or her birth certificate, which is a public document.