Lubrio & Asuncion Law Offices

10/01/2026

To be a full pledge lawyer, you must Pass the bar examinations, Take the Oath and Sign the Roll of Attorneys.

08/01/2026

13/11/2025

Labor Law

Four-fold test

Existence of an Employer - Employee relationship is based on four test: DSWC

1. Power of Dismisal
2. Selection and engagement of the employee
3. Payment of Wages
4. Power to Control the employee's conduct

12/11/2025

Criminal Law

SELF-DEFENSE

Elements:

1. Unlawful aggression
2. Reasonable Necessity of the means employed to prevent and repel the aggression
3. Lack of sufficient provocation on the part of the person defending himself

08/05/2017

A foreigner may still file a petition to recognize a foreign divorce

Although a foreigner has no substantive rights under the second paragraph of Article 26 of the Family Code in favor of aliens, this conclusion is not sufficient basis to dismiss a foreigner's petition before the courts. In other words, the unavailability of the second paragraph of Article 26 of the Family Code to aliens does not necessarily strip foreigners of legal interest to petition the court for the recognition of his foreign divorce decree. The foreign divorce decree itself, after its authenticity and conformity with the aliens national law have been duly proven according to our rules of evidence, serves as a presumptive evidence of right in favor of the foreigner, pursuant to Section 48, Rule 39 of the Rules of Court.

A direct involvement or being the subject of the foreign judgment is sufficient to clothe a party with the requisite interest to institute an action before our courts for the recognition of the foreign judgment. In a divorce situation, the divorce obtained by an alien abroad may be recognized in the Philippines, provided the divorce is valid according to his or her national law.

If both the foreign divorce decree and the national law of the alien, recognizing his or her capacity to obtain a divorce, purport to be official acts of a sovereign authority then Section 24, Rule 132 of the Rules of Court comes into play. This Section requires proof, either by (1) official publications or (2) copies attested by the officer having legal custody of the documents. If the copies of official records are not kept in the Philippines, these must be (a) accompanied by a certificate issued by the proper diplomatic or consular officer in the Philippine foreign service stationed in the foreign country in which the record is kept and (b) authenticated by the seal of his office.

The recognition of the foreign divorce decree may be made in a Rule 108 proceeding itself, as the object of special proceedings (such as that in Rule 108 of the Rules of Court) is precisely to establish the status or right of a party or a particular fact. Moreover, Rule 108 of the Rules of Court can serve as the appropriate adversarial proceeding by which the applicability of the foreign judgment can be measured and tested in terms of jurisdictional infirmities, want of notice to the party, collusion, fraud, or clear mistake of law or fact.

Corpuz vs. Sto. Tomas G.R. No. 186571, 11 August 2010.

09/08/2016

Rights of a Legal Wife to make funeral arrangements for a deceased spouse living separately with another woman:

"Article 305 of the Civil Code, in relation to what is now Article 1996 of the Family Code, specifies the persons who have the right and duty to make funeral arrangements for the deceased. Thus:

Art. 305. The duty and the right to make arrangements for the funeral of a relative shall be in accordance with the order established for support, under Article 294. In case of descendants of the same degree, or of brothers and sisters, the oldest shall be preferred. In case of ascendants, the paternal shall have a better right.

Art. 199. Whenever two or more persons are obliged to give support, the liability shall devolve upon the following persons in the order herein provided:

(1) The spouse;

(2) The descendants in the nearest degree;

(3) The ascendants in the nearest degree; and

(4) The brothers and sisters. (294a)"

(Fe Floro Valino vs. Rosario D. Adriano, et. al., G.R. No. 182894, 22 April 2014)

25/07/2016

I just realized that the Lawyer's Oath, which I have memorized for nth time, published by a certain bookstore is different from the Lawyer's oath I recited during my oath-taking.

25/07/2016

The danger to our free institutions lies not only in those who openly defy the authority of the government and violate its laws. The greater menace is in those who, in the name of democracy, destroy the very things it stands for as in this case and so undermine democracy itself.

Where liberty is debased into a cruel illusion, all of us are degraded and diminished. Liberty is indivisible; it belongs to every one. We should realize that when the bell tolls the death of liberty for one of us, "it tolls for thee" and for all of us. (Dissenting Opinion, Justice Isagani Cruz, Guanzon Vs. De Villa, G.R. No. 80508 January 30, 1990)

25/07/2016

The reason for the silence is fear. These raids are conducted not in the enclaves of the rich but in the deprived communities, where the residents have no power or influence. The parties directly aggrieved are afraid. They are the little people. They cannot protest lest they provoke retaliation for their temerity. (Dissenting Opinion of Justice Isagani Cruz, Guanzon vs. De Villa, G.R. No. 80508 January 30, 1990)