SC punishes lawyer over notarial lapses

MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court suspended a lawyer in his 80s from the practice of law for a year for committing notarial lapses.

The court found Isidro Madamba guilty of violating the Notarial Law, the 2004 Rules on Notarial Practice and the Code of Professional Responsibility after he notarized documents “either without the presence of the affiants or with their forged signatures.”

In a press statement, the Supreme Court public information office said court noted that while Madamba’s violations were serious enough to merit disbarment, it decided to suspend him for only a year for “humanitarian reasons… taking into account his old age and sickness.”

However, the high court revoked Madamba’s notarial commission and indefinitely suspended his reappointment as a notary public, according to the statement.

Quoting the court’s August 24 decision, the statement said that Madamba admitted signing documents prepared and drafted by his secretary “without reading them and without ascertaining what the documents purported to be.”

Madamba also said that he had “completely entrusted to his secretary the keeping and maintenance of his notarial practice.”

In a decision written by Justice Arturo Brion, the court said that it was no excuse that Madamba “is an octogenarian and insulin-dependent.”

“[T]he respondent’s age and sickness cannot be cited as reasons to disregard the serious lapses he committed in the performance of his duties as a lawyer and as a notary public,” the court said, adding: “The inaccuracies in his notarial register entries and his failure to enter the documents that he admittedly notarized constitute dereliction of duty as a notary public. He cannot escape liability by putting the blame on his secretary. The lawyer himself, not merely his secretary, should be held accountable for these misdeeds.”