194. Tan v. Pacuribot (Cla) 1.
Consolidated complaints filed against Executive Judge Rexel
December 14, 2007 | Per Curiam | Judicial Ethics
PETITIONER: SHerlita Tan, Johanna Villafranca, anonymous letter writers
RESPONDENTS: Judge Rexel Pacuribot
SUMMARY: Two (2) women filed separate complaints for sexual harassment
against Judge Rexel M. Pacuribot. The first is Sherlita O. Tan, and the other is
Johanna M. Villafranca. Both are married. Ms. Tan's ordeal started when she
refused an invitation from Judge Pacuribot to have dinner. Ms. Tan was attending
a wedding when Judge Pacuribot called her asking when she will be back in
Gingoog City. Judge Pacuribot said that she would fetch Ms. Tan. Ms. Tan
declined the offer but Judge Pacuribot angrily insisted. Instead of bringing Ms.
Tan to the terminal, Judge Pacuribot brought her to a motel. Ms. Villafranca, on
the other hand, received text messages from Judge Pacuribot with invitations for
dinner. She refused all of these invitations but Judge Pacuribot was persistent
forcing her to request for a transfer, which was however denied. In the last week
of February 2005, she got a call from Judge Pacuribot who was furious.
According to him, he was an honorable person and yet Ms. Villafranca refused
his invitations. Consumed by fear, she finally relented and accepted a dinner
invitation. While inside his car, Judge Pacuribot displayed his firearm, which was
allegedly for security purposes. It nevertheless intensified Ms. Villafranca's fear.
Instead of going to a restaurant, Judge Pacuribot drove to a drive-in motel.
Whether or not Judge Pacuribot guilty of rape and sexual harassment? Yes.
DOCTRINE:
Canon I
Rule 1.01: A Judge should be the embodiment of competence, integrity and
independence.
Canon II
Rule 2.00: A Judge should avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety
in all activities.
Rule 2.01: A judge should so behave at all times as to promote public confidence
in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.
Judges are mandated to maintain good moral character and are at all times
expected to observe irreproachable behavior so as not to outrage public
decency.
A magistrate is judged not only by his official acts but also by his private morals,
to the extent that such private morals are externalized.
FACTS:
Pacuribot of RTC of Gingoog City charging him with sexual
harassment
a. Filed by Sherlita Tan, Court STenographer of RTC
b. Filed by Johanna Villafranca, Clerk II, Gingoog CIty Parole
and Probation Office
c. Letter from “concerned citizens” asking OCA to investigate
the illicit relationship of Judge Pacuribot and Sheryl
Gamulo.
2. Tan’s story:
a. She went to CDO to attend a wedding. At around 8 pm, she
received a call from Judge Pacuribot asking when is she
going back to Gingoog City. She said she intends to back
right after the wedding reception.
b. Judge offered to bring her to Agora Bus Terminal but she
politely refused saying she will just take a taxi.
c. Declining his offer, he ordered her to come out, displaying
short temper, saying he was already waiting outside the
hotel.
d. Aware that he has the tendency to humiliate anyone in
public when he is angry, she decided to leave the wedding
reception and comply.
e. He opened the car door for her and she took her seat. Then
he angrily asked “what took you so long?” She kept mum.
She saw in between their seats his clutch bag with his short
firearm.
f. Along the way to the bus terminal, he drove into a
compound. They entered into a small garage. So ayun,
motel huhu.
i. "Why did you bring me here, sir? Didn't I tell you
that I will just take a taxicab to the Agora
Terminal?" He rudely told her: "Shut up! As if you
are still a virgin!" Judge then directed her to get
down the car.
g. As soon as she went down his car, she looked for a possible
exit and found none. So she went to the bathroom.
Paglabas niya, she found him nude in bed.
i. "What's taking you so long to undress? Excite me!"
ii. "You don't know how to kiss! How do you do it with
Ramon? (husband niya si Ramon) Get into sex
right away without any preliminaries?"
iii. "Shut up! Concentrate! See! It's softening. . . ."
She recalled that he tried several times to stiffen
his ano but he seemingly has some erection
problem.
 h. The two left the motel, judge brought Tan to another hotel.
He told her that it would be safer for her to sleep there
instead of travelling alone. He warned her not to leave the
hotel. He kept calling her that night and threatening her to
watch out in the office if she would disobey.
i. Judge’s advances on her went unabated even in the office.
She was warned that her failure to reply to his
j. She was warned that her failure to comply, or to receive his
call, or reply to his text messages will have an adverse
effect on her performance rating.
k. Judge also rented a room inside Tan’s house. When her
husband is not around. She would find him knocking on her
window ordering her to go to his room.
l. Tan claims that if Judge could not have his way with her, he
would scold her in his chamber and would also humiliate
her in front of her officemates. Her "Very Satisfactory" rating
in the previous years of her service went down to
"Satisfactory".
m. Tan eventually suffered from “chronic fatigue syndrome”
and was hospitalized in December 2005.
n. In February 2006, she filed criminal charges of rape, acts of
lasciviousness and sexual harassments against Judge
before the City Prosecutor of Gingoog City. No lawyer in
Gingoog City would even want to accept her case. The
criminal cases were dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. She
re-filed the case with the Prosecutor's Office of Cagayan de
Oro City. They were also dismissed.
3. Villafranca’s story:
a. They first met at the lobby near the Hall of Justice of
Gingoog City where she holds office.
b. Villafranca received a calls and texts from Judge telling her
how beautiful and sexy she is, how the mini skirt suited her.
She then started inviting her to dinner.
c. Villafranca was wary of these invitations because both of
them are married. She refused all of these invitations but
Judge was persistent forcing her to request for a transfer,
which was however denied.
d. In the last week of February 2005, she got a call from Judge
Pacuribot who was furious. According to him, he was an
honorable person and yet Ms. Villafranca refused his
invitations. Consumed by fear, she finally relented and
accepted a dinner invitation on February 22, 2005.
e. While inside his car, Judge Pacuribot displayed his firearm,
which was allegedly for security purposes. It nevertheless
intensified Ms. Villafranca's fear. Instead of going to a
restaurant, Judge Pacuribot drove to a drive-in motel. From
that day, Judge Pacuribot constantly demanded that Ms.
Villafranca send him text messages and letters expressing
sweet nonsense to feed his ego and any failure or refusal
would be met by a threat to divulge the incident in the motel.
f. Then Judge Pacuribot started demanding food from Ms.
Villafranca, which the latter was supposed to bring to his
boarding house. If she refused, Judge Pacuribot would
threaten to tell damaging stories to her mother-in-law with
whom she had a strained relation and to show the picture
he took on the cell phone. Because of these threats, Ms.
Villafranca was forced to bring some food to Judge
Pacuribot.
g. When Judge Pacuribot sensed that she was not going to
file an annulment case, he drafted a document wherein it
was stated that Ms. Villafranca and her husband
supposedly agreed that they may freely co-habit with a third
person. Judge Pacuribot, using threats of physical and
social harm, forced Ms. Villafranca and her husband to sign
the document.
h. When Ms. Villafranca still did not file the annulment case,
Judge Pacuribot slapped her and hit her head with a
clenched fist. Again he placed a kiss mark on her neck and
when her husband saw it, he beat her up.
i. When Judge Pacuribot knew of the beating, he forced Ms.
Villafranca to file a rape case but she refused.
j. The complainants filed their complaints personally before
the Office of Deputy Court Administrator Christopher O.
Lock.
k. Although Ms. Tan and Ms. Villafranca knew each other
professionally, their meeting at the said office was purely
coincidental and they had no idea that the other was
likewise the victim of Judge Pacuribot. Ms. Tan and Ms.
Villafranca tearfully related to Deputy Court Administrator
Christopher Lock their harrowing experience at the hands
of Judge Pacuribot.
4. Judge Pacuribot denied the charges of Tan and Villafranca for "lack
of factual and legal bases"; and opposed the allegations on the
ground that the same were motivated by revenge and were part of a
comprehensive and sinister plan to drive him out of service.
5. Judge Pacuribot explained that these administrative and criminal
charges filed against him by Tan and Villafranca were part and parcel
of a grand plot hatched by Ronnie Waniwan, a radio commentator,
to oust him from office. He claimed that Waniwan was then facing
four counts of libel in his sala.

ISSUE:
1. Whether or not Judge Pacuribot guilty of rape and sexual
harassment? Yes
RATIO: (Ethics part Ratio #6)
1. Ms. Villafranca's story of rape and repeated sexual harassments is
credible. Judge’s defense of denial and alibi failed to overcome
complainants' evidence.
2. He insists on the improbability of his presence at the scene of the
crime because he alleges that he does not go out at night in Gingoog
City without company for two (2) reasons — that he is security
conscious and that there is an NPA threat on his person.
a. Being security conscious is no proof of improbability in
going to Butuan City
b. Judge’s alibi that he was in Gingoog City on 22 February
2005 is backed up by the testimonies of SPO1 Ronald
Espejon and Placido Abellana. But these two are his loyals
aside from the fact that Abellana, as his court aide, is also
one whose employment is under control and supervision of
[Judge Pacuribot].
3. He claims that the administrative charge is Ms. Villafranca's reprisal
against him. He claims that Ms. Villafranca appears to be "fatally
attracted to him" and that he "remains steadfast in his refusal to
reciprocate he atrociously immoral and misdirected adoration to
him." He claims the administrative charge is proof of the fury of a
woman scorned.
a. Judge’s theory of Ms. Villafranca's "fatal attraction" and
"misdirected adoration" of him is funny. He never disputed
the testimony of the two (2) complainants that [Judge
Pacuribot] is reputed in the Hall of Justice as "terror", that
he is fond of humiliating people in public, using excoriating
language on his victim, that female employees avoid him
and veer away from him when they meet in the Hall of
Justice.
b. His constant threat that he will bring scandal to them by
making public her half naked picture taken in the motel. Her
wanting to protect her family from shame cowed her into
silence and submission.
4. At the time that [Judge Pacuribot] was taking advantage of Ms. Tan,
[Judge Pacuribot's] proverbial explosives temper and short fuse were
being put to good use to terrorize her with remarkable frequency.
a. Ms. Tan's testimony - she succeeded in revealing how
[Judge Pacuribot] took full advantage of his moral
ascendancy over her as his underling, destroying whatever
resistance she could put up by belittling her, outwitting her
and insulting her to reduce her to submission.
b. There is no standard reaction of a victim in a rape incident.
Not every victim of rape can be expected to act in
conformity with the expectations of anyone who has not
been subjected to the same danger at any time. The
workings of a human mind placed under emotional stress
are unpredictable; people react differently.
5. As to the alleged two-year delay in the filing of the complaint:
a. The Supreme Court has deemed delay as justified when
there is fear of reprisal, social humiliation, familial
considerations and economic reasons.
b. In the case of Ms. Tan, her tormentor is her superior who
constantly dangles his influence and power over her and
her job. As regards Ms. Villafranca, the threat to destroy
her, her family and her family's good name was ever
present; thus, haunting her emotionally and
psychologically. The delay in reporting the rape cases
committed by [Judge Pacuribot] has been justified.
c.
6. Black's Law Dictionary defines integrity to mean "soundness or moral
principle and character." It is said to be synonymous with "probity,"
"honesty," and "uprightness."
7. The evidence adduced indubitably show that [Judge Pacuribot] lacks
the honesty in dealing with his two subordinates herein. Not only did
he fail to live up to the high moral standard expected of a member of
the Judiciary but he has transgressed the norms of morality expected
of every person.
8. [Judge Pacuribot's] offenses in raping his victims and sexually
harassing them were committed with aggravation. He knew they
were married but instead of helping strengthen or protect their
marriage, he tried his best to destroy their marital bonds.
9. Indeed, [Judge Pacuribot's] reprehensible acts amount to gross
misconduct, and immorality.
10. Code of Judicial Conduct.
Canon I
Rule 1.01: A Judge should be the embodiment of competence,
integrity and independence.
Canon II
Rule 2.00: A Judge should avoid impropriety and the appearance of
impropriety in all activities.
Rule 2.01: A judge should so behave at all times as to promote public
confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.
 11. Judges are mandated to maintain good moral character and are at
all times expected to observe irreproachable behavior so as not to
outrage public decency.
12. A magistrate is judged not only by his official acts but also by his
private morals, to the extent that such private morals are
externalized.
13. We find totally unacceptable the temerity of Judge Pacuribot in
subjecting the complainants, both his subordinates, to his
unwelcome sexual advances and acts of lasciviousness. Over long
periods of time, he persistently solicited sexual favors from Ms. Tan
and Ms. Villafranca.
14. When they refused, he made their working conditions so unbearable
that Ms. Tan was eventually forced to transfer to another office and
Ms. Villafranca to seek employment abroad. Certainly, no judge has
a right to solicit sexual favors from any court employee, even from a
woman of loose morals.
15. His actuations are aggravated by the fact that complainants are his
subordinates over whom he exercises control and supervision, he
being the executive judge. He took advantage of his position and
power in order to carry out his lustful and lascivious desires. Instead
of acting in loco parentis over his subordinate employees, he was
even the one who preyed on them, taking advantage of his superior
position.
16. We, however, find the complaints of the Anonymous Letter Writers
without merit.

WHEREFORE, Judge Rexel M. Pacuribot is hereby DISMISSED from the

service for gross misconduct and immorality prejudicial to the best interests of
the service, with forfeiture of all retirement bene􏰀ts and with prejudice to re-
employment in any branch of the government, including government-owned
and controlled corporations, except the money value of accrued earned leave
credits. Respondent judge is hereby ORDERED to cease and desist
immediately from rendering any order or decision; or from continuing any
proceedings, in any case whatsoever, effective upon receipt of a copy of this
Decision. Lastly, respondent judge is REQUIRED to SHOW CAUSE why he
should not be disbarred as a member of the Philippine Bar.