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Republic of the Philippines

Court of Appeals
Cebu City

NINETEENTH DIVISION

LITO R. ADARAYAN, CA-G.R. CV NO. 05388


Petitioner-Appellee,
Members:

DELOS SANTOS, J., Ch.,


CONTRERAS &
- versus - FIEL-MACARAIG, JJ.

CHANDA PEREZ ADARAYAN, Promulgated:


Respondent,
OCTOBER 26, 2016
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES,
Oppositor-Appellant.

DECISION

CONTRERAS, J.:

This is an appeal from the Decision 1 of the Regional Trial Court


(RTC) of Laoang, Northern Samar dated December 26, 2013 granting
Petitioner-Appellee's petition for nullity of marriage on the ground of
psychological incapacity.

The Antecedents

Petitioner-Appellee Lito R. Adarayan (Lito) met Respondent


Chanda Perez Adarayan (Chanda) when he was assigned in Barangay
Yabyaban, Laoang as a public elementary school teacher in 1999. Chanda
was then 18 years old. Lito began courting her; some time later, they entered
into an intimate relationship.

1 Rollo, pp. 31-37.


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Decision

Because of their closeness, Chanda's parents asked Lito to marry her.


His own parents disapproved of this because they saw something wrong
with Chanda and were turned off by her behavior. Lito thought about
heeding his parents' adviceespecially since he was not the first man in
Chanda's lifebut Chanda threatened to commit suicide if he did.
Subsequently, Chanda's parents forced Lito to have the wedding in April
2000, which he and his parents complied with.

After their wedding, Lito let Chanda pursue her collegiate studies in
UEP Laoang so she could prepare for her future. While Chanda was studying
there, Lito received news that the former was having an affair with a lesbian.
Despite this, he let Chanda continue with her studies.

After a year, Lito heard rumors that Chanda was having an affair with
one of her ex-boyfriends. To confirm this, he told his wife that he was going
to Tacloban City but actually stayed with a friend at a nearby barangay.

When nighttime came, Lito went home and peeped inside his house.
To his surprise, he saw his wife and her ex-boyfriend having sexual
intercourse. He yelled at them, which made the man jump out the window,
leaving Chanda inside. Lito confronted a speechless Chanda, their one-year-
old baby crying on the side. He brought her to her parents' house and
explained to them what happened. He then decided that he could not live
with her as his wife.

In his petition, Lito alleged that Chanda is unable to observe fidelity;


that she is unable to fulfill her duties as a mother and wife since she was too
focused on her role as daughter to her parents; that she is an irresponsible
mother, not caring if there was no food and buying unnecessary things; and
that she is emotionally and psychologically unstable.

The Ruling of the RTC

The RTC decreed the following:

WHEREFORE, premises considered, the Local Civil


Registrar of Laoang, Northern Samar, is hereby ordered to enter in
the Marriage Registry this Decree of Nullity of Marriage in
compliance with Section 19 of the Rules on Declaration of Nullity
of Void Marriage.
CA-G.R. CV No. 05388 Page 3 of 9
Decision

The Court grants petitioner joint custody and visitation rights


to their son Kenneth P. Adarayan.

SO ORDERED.

The Issues

The Republic now contends that the RTC erred in granting the petition
for declaration of absolute nullity of marriage on account of Chanda's
psychological incapacity despite the absence of evidence to support the
same.

This Court's Ruling

The appeal lacks merit.

The psychological examination of


respondent is not a requirement for a
declaration of psychological
incapacity.

The Republic contends that the failure to interview Chanda, together


with the informants' unreliability, casts serious doubt on the findings of the
expert witness, Dr. Vincent Anthony Belicena. We do not agree.

The three basic requirements of psychological incapacity referred to


in Article 36 of the Family Code are: (a) gravity (b) juridical antecedence,
and (c) incurability. The foregoing guidelines do not require that a physician
examine the person to be declared psychologically incapacitated.2 In fact,
the root cause may be medically or clinically identified. What is important is
the presence of evidence that can adequately establish the party's
psychological condition. For indeed, if the totality of evidence presented is
enough to sustain a finding of psychological incapacity, then actual medical
examination of the person concerned need not be resorted to. 3 Thus, in the
case of Camacho-Reyes v. Reyes,4 the Supreme Court held, viz.:

2 Marcos v. Marcos, G.R. No. 136490, 19 October 2000.


3 Ibid.
4 G.R. No. 185286, 18 August 2010.
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For one, marriage, by its very definition, necessarily involves


only two persons. The totality of the behavior of one spouse during
the cohabitation and marriage is generally and genuinely witnessed
mainly by the other. In this case, the experts testified on their
individual assessment of the present state of the parties marriage
from the perception of one of the parties, herein petitioner. Certainly,
petitioner, during their marriage, had occasion to interact with, and
experience, respondents pattern of behavior which she could then
validly relay to the clinical psychologists and the psychiatrist.

For another, the clinical psychologists and psychiatrists


assessment were not based solely on the narration or personal
interview of the petitioner. Other informants such as respondents
own son, siblings and in-laws, and sister-in-law (sister of petitioner),
testified on their own observations of respondents behavior and
interactions with them, spanning the period of time they knew him.
These were also used as the basis of the doctors assessments.

Thus, regardless of whether Chanda was personally examined or not,


what is important is that the totality of Lito's evidence must support a
finding of psychological incapacity on Chanda's part. Based on the above
jurisprudence, We find that the psychological examination of Lito, together
with Lito's friend and Chanda's classmate, serves as sufficient basis in
determining whether Chanda is psychologically incapacitated or not.

The main question, then, is whether the totality of the evidence


presented in the present caseincluding the testimonies of Lito, his friend,
and Chanda's classmateis enough to sustain a finding that Chanda is
psychologically incapacitated.

The role of the trial judge in the


appreciation of the evidence should
be accorded due importance and
respect.

As aptly discussed by the Supreme Court in Kalaw v. Fernandez,5 viz.:

The findings of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) on the


existence or non-existence of a partys psychological incapacity
should be final and binding for as long as such findings and
evaluation of the testimonies of witnesses and other evidence are
5 G.R. No. 166357, 14 January 2015 (emphasis supplied).
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Decision

not shown to be clearly and manifestly erroneous. In every


situation where the findings of the trial court are sufficiently
supported by the facts and evidence presented during trial, the
appellate court should restrain itself from substituting its own
judgment. It is not enough reason to ignore the findings and
evaluation by the trial court and substitute our own as an appellate
tribunal only because the Constitution and the Family Code regard
marriage as an inviolable social institution. We have to stress that the
fulfillment of the constitutional mandate for the State to protect
marriage as an inviolable social institution only relates to a valid
marriage. No protection can be accorded to a marriage that is null
and void ab initio, because such a marriage has no legal existence.

xxx

Here, the findings and evaluation by the RTC as the trial


court deserved credence because it was in the better position to
view and examine the demeanor of the witnesses while they were
testifying. The position and role of the trial judge in the appreciation
of the evidence showing the psychological incapacity were not to be
downplayed but should be accorded due importance and respect.

Yet, in the September 19, 2011 decision, the Court brushed


aside the opinions tendered by Dr. Cristina Gates,a psychologist, and
Fr. Gerard Healy on the ground that their conclusions were solely
based on the petitioners version of the events.

After a long and hard second look, we consider it improper and


unwarranted to give to such expert opinions a merely
generalized consideration and treatment, least of all to dismiss
their value as inadequate basis for the declaration of the nullity
of the marriage. Instead, we hold that said experts sufficiently and
competently described the psychological incapacity of the
respondent within the standards of Article 36 of the Family Code.
We uphold the conclusions reached by the two expert witnesses
because they were largely drawn from the case records and
affidavits, and should not anymore be disputed after the RTC itself
had accepted the veracity of the petitioners factual premises.

Thus, We should not completely disregard Lito's evidence (the


findings of the expert witness, Dr. Vincent Anthony Belicena) on the basis of
rigid guidelines that have been set in previous cases.

Lito proved the gravity, juridical


antecedence, and incurability of
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Chanda's psychological incapacity.

Article 36 of the Family Code provides:

ART. 36. A marriage contracted by any party who, at the time of the
celebration, was psychologically incapacitated to comply with the
essential marital obligations of marriage, shall likewise be void even
if such incapacity becomes manifest only after its solemnization.

In Santos v. Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court declared that


"psychological incapacity" under Article 36 of the Family Code is not meant
to comprehend all possible cases of psychoses. It should refer, rather, to no
less than a mental (not physical) incapacity that causes a party to be truly
incognitive of the basic marital covenants that concomitantly must be
assumed and discharged by the parties to the marriage. Psychological
incapacity must be characterized by (a) gravity, (b) juridical antecedence,
and (c) incurability.6

Based on the findings of the expert witness, Dr. Vincent Anthony


Belicena, who in turn, based his report on interviews with Lito, Lito's friend
(Pepe Sabedoria), and Chanda's classmate (Anafe Balcera), We find that
Chanda suffers from psychological incapacity.

The recent case of Lim v. Sta. Cruz-Lim,7 citing The Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM IV), 8 instructs
us on the general diagnostic criteria for personality disorders:

A. An enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that


deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual's culture.
This pattern is manifested in two (2) or more of the following areas:

(1) cognition (i.e., ways of perceiving and interpreting


self, other people, and events)

(2) affectivity (i.e., the range, intensity, liability, and


appropriateness of emotional response)

(3) interpersonal functioning

(4) impulse control


6 Alcazar v. Alcazar, G.R. No. 174451, 13 October 2009.
7 G.R. No. 176464, 04 February 2010.
8 Quick Reference to the Diagnostic Criteria from DSM IV-TR, American Psychiatric Association, 2000.
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Decision

B. The enduring pattern is inflexible and pervasive across a broad


range of personal and social situations.

C. The enduring pattern leads to clinically significant distress or


impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of
functioning.

D. The pattern is stable and of long duration, and its onset can be
traced back at least to adolescence or early adulthood.

E. The enduring pattern is not better accounted for as a manifestation


or a consequence of another mental disorder.

F. The enduring pattern is not due to the direct physiological effects


of a substance (i.e., a drug of abuse, a medication) or a general
medical condition (e.g., head trauma).

As categorically stated by Dr. Belicena in her Psychiatric Evaluation


Report on Spouses Lito Rolea Adarayan and Chanda Tuba Perez,9 Chanda
suffers from narcissistic personality disorder, finding that i) she has a
grandiose sense of self-importance (wanting to be the center of attention and
exaggerating her achievements); ii) she has a sense of entitlement
(demanding from Lito things they could not afford); iii) she is
interpersonally exploitative (threatening to kill herself if Lito did not marry
her); iv) she lacks empathy (unable to feel Lito's pain); and v) she causes
distress to those around her (throwing things around the house when angry
and trying to stab Lito with a knife).

Further, Dr. Belicena recommended that Lito and Chanda's marriage


be nullified on the grounds that Chanda's personality disorder is incurable,
has antecedence (exhibiting well before the marriage), and is grave (as
shown by her violent tendencies and failure to see the error of her ways).

Each case must be judged, not on the basis of a priori assumptions,


predilections or generalizations but according to its own facts. In the field of
psychological incapacity as a ground for annulment of marriage, it is trite to
say that no case is on "all fours" with another case. The trial judge must take
pains in examining the factual milieu and the appellate court must, as much
as possible, avoid substituting its own judgment for that of the trial court.10

9 Records, pp. 52-56.


10 Republic v. Molina, G.R. No. 108763, 13 February 1997.
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Decision

Even with new advances in psychology and psychiatry, there are no


known cures for personality disorders, only treatments. Further, it is clear
that Chanda's personality disorder had existed at the time of her marriage to
Lito. In fact, no such marriage would have transpired if Chanda had not
threatened to kill herself if Lito did not marry her. Moreover, in the way
Chanda's parents always seemed to placate her and cater to her whims, We
do not doubt that Chanda may have grown up to be self-entitled and
egocentric, expecting the rest of the world to cater to her caprices as well.
Lastly, We find that Chanda's psychological incapacity is grave, which may
lead to the family's financial ruin, and worse, to more violence around the
household.

In fine, given the factual milieu of the present case and in light of the
foregoing disquisition, We find ample basis to conclude that Chanda was
psychologically incapacitated to perform the essential marital obligations at
the time of her marriage to Lito.

WHEREFORE, the appeal is DENIED. The Decision dated December


26, 2013 granting Petitioner-Appellee Lito Adarayan's petition for nullity of
marriage on the ground of psychological incapacity is AFFIRMED.

SO ORDERED.

ORIGINAL SIGNED
EDWARD B. CONTRERAS
Associate Justice

WE CONCUR:

ORIGINAL SIGNED ORIGINAL SIGNED


EDGARDO L. DELOS SANTOS GERALDINE C. FIEL-MACARAIG
Associate Justice Associate Justice
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CERTIFICATION

Pursuant to Article VIII, Section 13 of the Constitution, it is hereby


certified that the conclusions in the above decision were reached in
consultation before the case was assigned to the writer of the opinion of the
Court.

ORIGINAL SIGNED
EDGARDO L. DELOS SANTOS
Associate Justice
Chairperson, Nineteenth Division

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