A Bacolod City court has disqualified lawyer Philip Sigfrid A. Fortun from testifying on behalf of the four Yanson siblings in the proceedings of the estate of the late Ricardo B. Yanson Sr.
In an order, the Bacolod City Regional Trial Court Branch 45 Presiding Judge Pheobe A. Gargantiel-Balbin granted the motion filed by Ginnette Yanson Dumancas to disqualify Fortun as a witness in the case.
“The motion to disqualify filed by the petitioner is granted. Atty. Philip Sigfrid A. Fortun is hereby disqualified from testifying on behalf of the oppositors,” the court said in its order dated October 2.
The court also reset the next hearing on the case to December 12, to provide the Yanson four—composed of Roy, Emily, Ma. Lourdes Celina and Ricardo Jr.—time to prepare the judicial affidavit and presentation of other witnesses.
Ginnette Dumancas filed a petition seeking the disqualification of Fortun on the ground that the Code of Professional Responsibility prohibits a counsel from testifying on behalf of his client.
She said Fortun could not be allowed to testify as a witness in the support of their motion to remove Olivia V. Yanson as special administratix.
In her decision, Judge Gargantiel-Balbin said the court agreed with the petitioner, Dumangcas, that the testimony of Fortun does not fall within the first exception under Rule 12.08 of the Code of Professional Responsibility which states that a lawyer shall avoid testifying in behalf of his client except on formal matters such as the mailing, authentication or custody of an instrument or the like.
The court also noted that Section 22, Rule 130 of the Amended Rules of Court provides that a witness can testify only to those facts which he or she knows of his or her personal knowledge, that is which are derived from his or her own perception.
“A reading of the judicial affidavit of Atty. Fortun would show that he has no personal knowledge of the facts he intends to testify,” the court said.
The Supreme Court in an October 2004 decision explained the reason behind the rule on the disqualification of lawyers from testifying on behalf of their client.
“The reason behind such rule is the difficulty posed upon lawyers by the task of dissociating their relation to their clients as witnesses from that as advocates,” the high court said.
The Yanson four are all reportedly abroad.
Family matriarch Olivia V. Yanson, has already disinherited her four children, while naming two as her universal heirs.
The Bacolod City Regional Trial Court Branch 44, under presiding Judge Ana Celeste P. Bernad, in its decision dated August 31 has allowed the last will and testament of Olivia as it complied with the formalities required by law.
Olivia named her children Leo Rey and Ginnette as the universal heirs in her will, while Roy, Emily, Ma. Lourdes Celina and Ricardo Jr., were left out.
The court has allowed for probate of her last will. Probate is the formal legal process that recognizes a will. Olivia filed the petition for probate of her will on April 15, 2019.
Olivia, together with her husband, the late Ricardo Yanson Sr. established Vallacar Transit Inc. in 1968 that eventually became the largest bus company in the Philippines.