A Makati resident yesterday filed a disbarment case against one of Vice President Jejomar Binay’s accusers for “gross immoral conduct” allegedly involving bigamy. In a two-page complaint filed before the Supreme Court Office of the Court Administrator, Eduardo Eridio of Barangay Palanan alleged that Atty. Renato L. Bondal married Rutchie B. Barcelona on March 19, 1997 before Judge Felicidad Navarro-Quiambao of Branch 65, Metropolitan Trial Court-Makati City. The complainant further alleged that on July 2, 2011, Bondal contracted a second marriage with Janice N. Ramos who was “20 years his junior” at Malate Catholic Church, with Rev. Fr. Daniel O’Malley as the officiating priest. Eridio said Bondal’s privilege to practice law should be withdrawn because “abandoning his first wife and children and taking a second wife twenty (20) years younger than him, clearly shows that he is leading a life not in accordance with the highest moral standards of the community.” He cited Section 27 Rule 138 of the Rules of Court that says, “A member of the Bar may be removed or suspended from his office as attorney by the Supreme Court for any deceit, malpractice, or other gross misconduct in such office, grossly immoral conduct, or by reason of his conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude, or for any violation of the oath which he is required to take before the admission to practice, or for a willful disobedience of any lawful order of a superior court, or for corruptly or willfully appearing as an attorney for a party to a case without authority so to do.” Eridio said Bondal also violated Article 349 of the Revised Penal Code, which imposes a penalty of prision mayor or imprisonment from six years to 12 years for bigamy. Bigamy is committed when a person contracts a second or subsequent marriage before the former marriage has been legally dissolved, or before the absent spouse has been declared presumptively dead by means of a judgment rendered in proper proceedings. Attached to his sworn complaint were copies of the marriage certificates for both dates, with registry no. 97-1088 for the first marriage and registry no. 2011-06804 for the second. Also attached is a certification from NSO signed by Lisa Grace Bersales, national statistician and civil registrar general, showing the two marriages registered in the database covering the period 1945-2014. Eridio said that Bondal “tried to mislead the public by using a second name ‘Lou’,” as shown in the second marriage certificate, but in both records, his birthday, address and parents’ names are identical. These documents, he said, prove that the grooms in the first and second marriages, Renato L. Bondal and Renato Lou L. Bondal, are one and the same. Quoting from jurisprudence, Erido concluded, “As officers of the court, lawyers must not only in fact be of good moral character but must also be perceived to be of good moral character and must lead a life in accordance with the highest moral standards of the community.”
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