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A.C. No. 12098.  March 20, 2019.*

 
MARILYN PABALAN, complainant, vs. ATTY. ELISEO MAGNO
C. SALVA, respondent.

Attorneys; Having already imposed a punishment on Salva in

the said case involving the same set of facts, the Supreme Court
(SC) is thus constrained to dismiss the instant complaint.—It is
noteworthy that among all the allegations of Benito, it is
the allegation specific to Pabalan that became the basis for
Salva’s suspension. Still, the IBP Board of Governors denied
Salva’s MR, “there being no new reason and/or new argument
adduced to reverse the

_______________

* SECOND DIVISION.

 
 
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464 SUPREME COURT REPORTS ANNOTATED

Pabalan vs. Salva

previous findings and decision of the Board of Governors.”

This is serious error on the part of the IBP. Upon being informed
of the Court’s ruling in A.C. No. 9809, which approved and
adopted the IBP’s findings in CBD Case No. 09-2382 (including
Pabalan’s allegations), the IBP should have granted the MR and
dismissed the complaint. Evidently, the allegations raised by
Pabalan in this case have been previously ruled upon by the IBP
and the Court in A.C. No. 9809. Having already imposed a
punishment on Salva in the said case involving the same set of
facts, the Court is thus constrained to dismiss the instant
complaint. On this note, the Court calls on the IBP to be more
circumspect and prudent in handling the cases before it.

ADMINISTRATIVE CASE in the Supreme Court.

Disbarment.
The facts are stated in the resolution of the Court.
   Salva & Salva Law Office for respondent.

 
RESOLUTION
 
CAGUIOA,  J.:
 
On December 13, 2011, Marilyn Pabalan (Pabalan) filed
before the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP)
Commission on Bar Discipline (CBD) a Complaint for
Disbarment1 against Atty. Eliseo Magno Salva (Salva) for

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unprofessional and immoral conduct, originally docketed as

CBD Case No. 11-3282.
 
Complaint
 
Pabalan claimed that she and Salva were live-in partners for
three years until 2008. She alleged that: 1) “with sweet words and
promise of marriage,” Salva deceived her into taking him in her
condo unit and induced her to advance the funding for his
proposed law office; 2) she and Salva entered into an agreement
wherein she would solicit clients for Salva

_______________

1 Rollo, pp. 2-6.

 
 
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and they would evenly divide the attorney’s fees paid by

the clients, not knowing that a partnership between a
lawyer and nonlawyer was illegal; 3) Salva is a womanizer
with children from different women, and he faked a
certificate of non-marriage (CENOMAR) in order to enter
into a marriage for convenience with a U.S. citizen in 2008;
4) Salva was her counsel in a case before the National
Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) and he failed to
represent her with zeal, even withdrawing as counsel prior
to his substitution; and 5) Salva neglected to return more
than P1 million she incurred in putting up his law office,
including payment of her shares in the solicitation of
clients which she endorsed to him per their agreement.
Pabalan also stated that she was a witness in another
disbarment case filed by a certain Daniel Benito (Benito)
against Salva in CBD Case No. 09-2382. She claimed that
she was emboldened to file a separate case and not just be
a witness when a certain Cherry Reyes-Abastillas
(Abastillas) filed another disbarment case against Salva in
CBD Case No. 11-3098.2
 
Answer
 
3
In his  Answer   dated March 12, 2012, Salva denied the
allegations against him. He averred that Pabalan, Benito, and
Abastillas are all close friends who have an axe to grind against
him; hence, they fabricated the disbarment complaints.

_______________

2  On June 11, 2018, the Court issued a Resolution in A.C. No. 12043
titled Cherry Reyes-Abastillas v. Atty. Eliseo Magno C. Salva wherein the
Court adopted the Recommendation of the IBP to dismiss the complaint
for failure to sufficiently establish the fact that respondent committed
grossly immoral conduct as to warrant disbarment. There being no motion
for reconsideration, the Court also considered the case as closed and
terminated.
3 Rollo, pp. 19-23.

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Pabalan vs. Salva

As regards the instant case, Salva admitted that he and

Pabalan were seeing each other but he decided not to see
her anymore when she insisted that he change his religious
affiliation and marry her abroad. Subsequently, Pabalan
demanded P1 million from him, failure of which meant that
she would do everything to destroy him. Salva claimed that
it was actually Pabalan who owed him money for unpaid
legal services when he represented her in an ejectment
suit. He also denied inducing Pabalan to fund his law firm
as he already had a law office at Salva & Associates.
Likewise, he denied entering into a partnership with
Pabalan, and even assuming such agreement validly
existed, it was Pabalan who insisted on entering the same.
He averred that the agreement was never enforced nor
implemented because Pabalan never referred any client to
him.
Salva also denied that he falsified his CENOMAR. He
countered that it was Pabalan and Benito who secured the
CENOMAR on the basis of falsified information. Lastly,
Salva claimed that he withdrew as counsel in the NLRC
case upon instructions of Pabalan since according to her,
she would just engage the services of another counsel. He
alleged that Pabalan no longer participated in the case
when he withdrew as counsel since she was not actually an
employee of the party respondent in that case so her
complaint had no basis. In fact, after the complaint was
dismissed without prejudice by the NLRC due to
nonattendance of Pabalan, the latter never refiled the
same.
As an affirmative defense, Salva argued that the case
should be dismissed for forum shopping because Pabalan
already raised the same issues in the instant case in her
Sinumpaang Salaysay in the earlier disbarment case filed
by Benito against Salva.
Pabalan filed her Reply4 on July 10, 2012, reiterating
her allegations and denying Salva’s assertions.

_______________

4 Id., at pp. 29-30.

 
 

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Pabalan vs. Salva

Motion to Dismiss
 
On September 17, 2012, Salva filed a Motion to
Dismiss5 (MTD) on the grounds of forum shopping, res
judicata, and double jeopardy. He informed the IBP-CBD
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that it had already issued a Report and Recommendation

in CBD Case No. 09-2382 which was adopted and approved
by the IBP Board of Governors, wherein he was
admonished for entering into an agreement with Pabalan
for the solicitation of clients and division of attorney’s fees.
Salva claimed that Pabalan is in effect a complainant in CBD
Case No. 09-2382 because her  Sinumpaang Salaysay, which
raised the same issues in the instant case, was incorporated
therein, with the same annexes as those attached to her
complaint in the instant case.
 
IBP Report and Recommendation
 
The records do not show any action by the IBP on the MTD.
However, on November 20, 2012, the Investigating Commissioner
issued a Report and Recommendation6 finding Salva guilty of
grossly immoral conduct and of violating his oath as a lawyer,
thereby recommending that he be suspended from the practice of
law for six months. The pertinent findings of the Investigating
Commissioner are reproduced below:

We found that [c]omplainant and [respondent before July

2006 had been living together as shown by Annex “A”[.]
Respondent calls [c]omplainant [by her] nickname “Mayie.”
As proof of their relationship in July 2006[,] [Respondent
wrote a letter greeting complainant happy anniversary and
happy birthday, expressing his 

_______________

5 Id., at pp. 46-49.

6 Id., at pp. 79-85, by Investigating Commissioner Honesto A. Villamor.

 
 
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Pabalan vs. Salva

love and praying [for] God to bless them and to be part of

everything they do[,] which letter is marked as Annex “B”[.]
To show also that there was an agreement for the
partnership between [Respondent and [c]omplainant[,] the
same is marked as Annex C[.] Likewise, complainant
submitted Annex C to show that [Respondent secured a
certification that the name of [Respondent does not appear
in the record of marriages in the NSO[,] marked as Annex
D.
Respondent should know that it is a violation of
Canon 33 to form a partnership between a lawyer
and nonlawyer. As there is no clear evidence to show
how much [c]omplainant spent [for his] law office,
[if] there was such really, we cannot grant her the
reimbursement claimed.7 (Emphasis supplied)

 
In a  Resolution8  dated June 21, 2013, the IBP Board of
Governors adopted and approved the Report and
Recommendation of the Investigating Commissioner with
modification of the penalty, increasing the admonition to one-year
suspension from the practice of law.

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On October 2, 2013, Salva filed a motion for

reconsideration9  (MR) before the IBP, citing among others the
grounds of res judicata  and double jeopardy. He cited the earlier
ruling of the IBP Board of Governors in CBD Case No. 09-
238210  which already admonished him for the same acts being
raised in the instant case. On May 11, 2015, Salva filed a
supplemental MR11 where he informed the IBP that its ruling in
CBD Case No. 09-2382 had already been affirmed by the Supreme
Court  in a Resolution12  dated September 11, 2013 in  A.C. No.
9809 

_______________

7 Id., at pp. 83-84.

8 Id., at p. 78.
9  Id., at pp. 86-124. Titled “Petition to Reconsider and Set Aside
Resolution No. xx-2013-777.”
10 Mistakenly indicated in the MR as CBD Case No. 09-2383.
11 Rollo, pp. 287-303.
12 Id., at pp. 305-308, including dorsal portion.

 
 
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Pabalan vs. Salva

(Daniel V. Benito v. Atty. Eliseo Magno C. Salva), the

dispositive portion of which is quoted below:

WHEREFORE, respondent Atty. Eliseo Magno C. Salva

is found GUILTY of violating Rule 9.02 of the Code of
Professional Responsibility. He is SUSPENDED from the
practice of law for six (6) months effective from notice and
STERNLY WARNED that any similar infraction will be
dealt with more severely.13

 
In a Resolution14  dated April 20, 2017, the IBP Board of
Governors denied the MR. Hence, this case before the Court.
 
The Court’s Ruling
 
The Court disagrees with the IBP. The disbarment complaint
should be dismissed in view of the ruling in A.C. No. 9809.
At the outset, the Court notes that in the instant disbarment
complaint filed by Pabalan in CBD Case No. 11-3282, she
manifested that she had been a witness in the disbarment
complaint filed by Benito against Salva in CBD Case No. 09-2382:

3.  When CBD Case No. 09-2382 was filed by Mr. Benito

against the Respondent herein,  Complainant and her
“SINUMPAANG SALAYSAY” was integrated therein
as one of the witnesses (WITNESS L) and her
information therein were marked as Annex-A thru
Annex-H[.]  Complainant could have remained only as a
witness had it not been for Ms[.] CHERRY REYES-
ABASTILLAS who filed a Disbarment Case (CBD Case No.
11-3098) against this same Respondent for the
maltreatment and mental anguish she suffered from him;

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that  this Complainant had come to realize how she was

gravely

_______________

13 Id., at p. 308, including dorsal portion.

14 Id., at pp. 522-523.

 
 
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Pabalan vs. Salva

abused by Respondent that it is only warranted that she file

her Claims and Complaint directly herself like her other co-
victims.15 (Emphasis and underscoring supplied)

 
The Court also notes that Pabalan issued an “Appointment
Paper”16  where she designated Benito as her attorney-in-fact to
represent her in the cases she filed before the IBP, RTC, and MTC
against Salva, which include the instant disbarment complaint.
In his Answer in the instant case, Salva raised forum shopping
as an affirmative defense. This, along with Pabalan’s
manifestation, should have been enough to alert the IBP. Indeed,
the IBP should have already dismissed the instant disbarment
complaint because the same grounds raised by Pabalan were
already contained in her Sinumpaang Salaysay17 as a witness in
CBD Case No. 09-2382. The instant complaint even contains the
same annexes as those attached to her  Sinumpaang Salaysay.
While Pabalan’s allegations were only part of the many other
allegations raised by Benito in CBD Case No. 09-2382, Salva was
able to address Pabalan’s allegations in his Answer18 therein. In
fact, he even devoted the last few pages of said Answer as a Reply
to Pabalan’s Sinumpaang Salaysay.19
Further, before the Investigating Commissioner issued his
Report and Recommendation on November 20, 2012, Salva filed a
Motion to Dismiss on September 17, 2012 where he informed the
IBP that a Report and Recommendation20 on CBD Case No. 09-
2382 was already issued on April 11, 2011, which was adopted
and approved by the IBP Board of Gover-

_______________

15 Id., at p. 2.
16 Id., at p. 12.
17 Id., at pp. 205-207.
18 Id., at pp. 212-232.
19 Id., at pp. 228-232.
20 Id., at pp. 276-283.

 
 
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nors on June 28, 2012.21  The relevant portions of the IBP

Report in CBD Case No. 09-2382 are quoted below:

Complainant also accuses respondent of immoral conduct

x  x  x Complainant accuses respondent of an “(a)greement
with Ms. Marilyn Pabalan, a nonlawyer, on a 50-50
scheme as indicated on her Annex-C for her to solicit clients
or acting as agent or touter” knowing that Ms. Pabalan is a
nonlawyer x  x  x. Complainant also accuses respondent of
“withdrawal as counsel of Ms. Marilyn Pabalan x x x out of
malice and ill will” x x x.
Complainant also accuses respondent of irregularities in
the entries pertaining to respondent’s marriage appearing
in the records of the [NSO] x x x.
x x x x
Respondent  denies committing any unprofessional
conduct with respect to Marilyn Pabalan. x x x Respondent
likewise denies having an agreement with Pabalan for a 50-
50 sharing scheme in the solicitation of clients x  x  x and
states that he withdrew as counsel of Pabalan “due to the
instructions and insistence of Pabalan.” x x x
x x x x
With respect to the irregular entries pertaining to
respondent’s marriage as appearing in the records of the
[NSO], it is  pure speculation to conclude that respondent
was responsible for tampering his records in the NSO or
should be held accountable for his missing NSO records.
Indeed, respondent is not the official custodian of his
marriage records. If there will be any [irregularity] in the
official records, then it is the NSO which should be made to
explain. On the other hand, if complainant is claiming that
respondent was engaged in any immorality with respect to
his marriage, then complainant has to present something
more than a mere certification from the NSO that records of
respondent pertaining to marriage could 

_______________

21 Id., at p. 65.

 
 
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Pabalan vs. Salva

not be found. Again, we are dwelling in the realm of

speculation. Thus, once again, there is no factual basis for
this charge.
With respect to the charge of respondent entering into a
50-50 agreement on the sharing of attorney’s fees,
complainant attached as Annex “C” of his complaint a copy
of said agreement.
x x x x
Hence, except for the charge of entering into an
agreement with a nonlawyer for the sharing of
attorney’s fees, all the charges raised against
respondent are found to have no factual and legal
basis. With respect to the charge of entering into an
agreement with a nonlawyer for the sharing of attorney’s

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fees, respondent is found guilty. (Emphasis and

underscoring supplied).22

 
As gleaned from above, the IBP had already considered the
allegations of Pabalan against Salva when it ruled on the
disbarment complaint filed by Benito in CBD Case No. 09-2382.
To repeat, the allegations of Pabalan in CBD Case No. 09-2382
and in the instant case are the same. Still, the IBP adopted and
approved on June 21, 2013 the Report and Recommendation of
the Investigating Commissioner, without even acknowledging its
earlier ruling in CBD Case No. 09-2382.
Furthermore, Salva cited again the IBP’s ruling in CBD Case
No. 09-2382 when he filed his MR on October 2, 2013.
Subsequently, he filed on May 11, 2015 a supplemental MR,
informing the IBP that the Court had already issued a Resolution
on September 11, 2013 in A.C. No. 9809 adopting its Report and
Recommendation in CBD Case No. 09-2382 but modifying the
penalty from admonition to suspension from the practice of law
for six months. The Court therein ruled:

_______________

22 Id., at pp. 277-283.

 
 
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Pabalan vs. Salva

After a careful examination of the records, this Court concurs

with and adopts the findings of the [IBP] Investigating
Commissioner and of the [IBP] Board of Governors x  x  x.
Respondent violated Rule 9.02 of the Code of Professional
Responsibility in entering into an agreement to divide attorney’s
fees with a nonlawyer. As such, respondent is suspended from the
practice of law for six (6) months.
There is a dearth of evidence that will justify the
imposition of a grave penalty premised on gross misconduct
relating to respondent’s participation in the eviction of
complainant, inordinate appearance in proceedings before
the Lupon Tagapamayapa, conflict of interest, direct and
personal liability for a retired judge’s supposed practice of
law as well as erroneous and/or missing records in the
[NSO]. Nevertheless, the document identified by
complainant as “Annex-C (Mayie’s Annexes IBP
Complaint)” is clearly an agreement between
respondent and Pabalan, a nonlawyer, concerning
the equal division of attorney’s fees paid by clients
solicited by Pabalan.
x x x x
Given these, it is, at the very least, unclear if respondent
and Pabalan actually divided for themselves the attorney’s
fees paid to respondent. Nevertheless, Rule 9.02 of the Code
of Professional Responsibility prohibits not only the actual
division of attorney’s fees by a lawyer with a nonlawyer but
also the mere stipulation of such an agreement. The mere
execution of the agreement is, thus, a violation of
Rule 9.02 of the Code of Professional Responsibility
for which it is proper to suspend respondent from the
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practice of law for six (6) months.23 (Emphasis and

underscoring supplied)

_______________

23 Id., at pp. 306 (dorsal portion)-308.

 
 
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Pabalan vs. Salva

It is noteworthy that among all the allegations of

Benito, it is the allegation specific to Pabalan that
became the basis for Salva’s suspension.
Still, the IBP Board of Governors denied Salva’s MR,
“there being no new reason and/or new argument adduced
to reverse the previous findings and decision of the Board
of Governors.”24 This is serious error on the part of the IBP.
Upon being informed of the Court’s ruling in A.C. No. 9809,
which approved and adopted the IBP’s findings in CBD
Case No. 09-2382 (including Pabalan’s allegations), the IBP
should have granted the MR and dismissed the complaint.
Evidently, the allegations raised by Pabalan in this case have
been previously ruled upon by the IBP and the Court in A.C. No.
9809. Having already imposed a punishment on Salva in the said
case involving the same set of facts, the Court is thus constrained
to dismiss the instant complaint.
On this note, the Court calls on the IBP to be more circumspect
and prudent in handling the cases before it.
WHEREFORE, the disbarment complaint against Atty. Eliseo
Magno C. Salva is DISMISSED.
SO ORDERED.

Carpio (Chairperson), Perlas-Bernabe, J. Reyes, Jr. and

Lazaro-Javier, JJ., concur.

Disbarment complaint dismissed.

Notes.—A case or issue is considered moot and academic when

it ceases to present a justiciable controversy by virtue of
supervening events, so that an adjudication of the case or a
declaration on the issue would be of no practical value or use.
(Purisima vs. Carpio-Morales, 833 SCRA 217 [2017])

_______________

24 Id., at p. 522.

 
 
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Pabalan vs. Salva

There is no question that whenever the issues have become

moot and academic, there ceases to be any justiciable controversy,
such that the resolution of the issues no longer have any practical
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value. (Estrada vs. Sandiganbayan [Fifth Division], 872

SCRA 139 [2018])

 
——o0o——
 

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