[ G.R. No.
252124, July 23, 2024 ]
BOHOL WISDOM SCHOOL, DR. SIMPLICIO YAP, JR., AND RAUL H. DELOSO,
PETITIONERS, VS. MIRAFLOR MABAO, RESPONDENT.
FACTS
Mabao was a former teacher at BWS. She started working there on June 7, 2007 as a grade
school teacher. She was granted regular status in 2010.
In September 2016, Mabao Mabao confessed to Melinda Sabaricos (Sabaricos), the grade
school principal of BWS, and Deloso, Head of BWS’ Administrative Team, that she was
pregnant out of wedlock but plans to be wed soon. The father of Mabao's baby was her
boyfriend, Ian Usaraga, who is also unmarried.
Mabao was called to a conference where she was told she would be suspended from work
until she got married. On September 27, 2016, Mabao received the Disciplinary Form and
the Letter stating that she was indefinitely suspended without pay. After receiving information
that Mabao got married on October 5, 2016, BWS sent Mabao her First Return-to-Work
Notice dated October 7, 2016, asking her to report back to work immediately. When the First
Return-to-Work Notice was personally handed to respondent at her known address, she
refused to receive it. Petitioners thus sent the First Return-to-Work Notice via registered mail
on October 7, 2016, which respondent received on October 24, 2016.
Respondent replied to the First Return-to-Work Notice through a Letter dated November 9,
2016 which states that respondent could no longer go back to work for the school since she
has already raised the matter before the NLRC.
BWS sent two more Return-to-Work Notices but respondent refused to accept.
ISSUE
W/N being pregnant out of wedlock is considered immoral in the eyes of law and may thus
be a ground for suspension from work.
RULING
No. In the eyes of the law, there is a standard of morality that binds all those who come
before it, which is public and secular, not religious. It is important to make this distinction as
the Court's jurisdiction extends only to public and secular morality.
Public and secular morality refers to conduct proscribed because they are detrimental to
conditions upon which depend the existence and progress of human society. Otherwise, if
government relies upon religious beliefs in formulating public policies and morals, the
resulting policies and morals would require conformity to what some might regard as
religious program or agenda.
In this case, respondent was suspended for engaging in premarital sexual relations, resulting
in being pregnant out of wedlock.
The Court has previously ruled in Leus v. Scholastica’s College Westgrove and in Inocente
v. St. Vincent Foundation for Children and Aging, Inc. that premarital sexual relations
resulting in pregnancy out of wedlock cannot be considered disgraceful or immoral when
viewed against the prevailing norms of conduct.
Sexual intercourse between two consenting adults who have no legal impediment to marry,
like respondent and her boyfriend, is not deemed as immoral. No law proscribes such, and
said conduct does not contravene any fundamental state policy enshrined in the
Constitution.
thus find that respondent's act of engaging in premarital sexual relations with her boyfriend
and eventually getting pregnant, is not disgraceful or immoral within the contemplation of the
law.
Respondent's suspension on the ground of engaging in premarital sexual relations resulting
in pregnancy out of wedlock is therefore illegal.
