The Supreme Court has suspended a lawyer for two years from the practice of law as well as permanently barred her from being commissioned as notary public after finding her guilty of malpractice as a notary public and violating the lawyer’s oath and the rules of the Code of Professional Responsibility.
In an en banc decision, the SC through Associate Justice Diosdado M. Peralta directed that copies of its decision be furnished all the courts of the land through the Office of the Court Administrator, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, and the Office of the Bar Confidant; and recorded in the personal files of Atty. Nelly E. Abao.
The high court found Abao to have notarized in 1995 a deed of absolute sale in Dao, Capiz despite knowing fully well that she was without a valid notarial commission as established by the Certification issued by Atty. Jelou F. Almalbis-Laguna, Clerk of Court VI of Regional Trial Court, 6th Judicial Region, Roxas City, stating that Abao was never commissioned as notary public in the City of Roxas, Capiz for the year 1995 and had no notarial files on record for the same year.
The SC noted that under the 2004 Rules on Notarial Practice, a person commissioned as a notary public may perform notarial acts in any place within the territorial jurisdiction of the commissioning court for a period of two years commencing the first day of January of the year in which the commissioning is made.
“Clearly, Atty. Abao could not perform notarial functions in Dao, Capiz, since she was not commissioned in the said places to perform such act in the year 1995,” the tribunal said.
Abao has also been found to have committed a form of falsehood for misrepresenting in the subject deed of absolute sale that she was a notary public for and in Dao, Capiz, when in fact she was not.