CA annuls SC official's marriage

MANILA, Philippines - The Court of Appeals (CA) has nullified the marriage of Supreme Court Assistant Court Administrator Edwin Villasor to his wife of 36 years.

The CA’s fifth division held in a 25-page decision that Villasor suffers from an incurable psychological incapacity that prevents him from fulfilling his responsibilities as a husband, so his marriage to Ma. Theresa should be annulled. The SC official and his wife have two sons.

The CA found there was sufficient compliance with the Molina doctrine to warrant the annulment of the marriage of Ma. Theresa and Edwin under Article 36 of the Family Code.

“The totality of her evidence, especially the testimony of her expert witnesses...had sufficiently proved... appellee’s (Villasor) psychological incapacity to comply with his essential marital obligations,” said the ruling penned by Associate Justice Amy Lazaro-Javier.

Associate Justices Rebecca de Guia-Salvador and Sesinando Villon concurred in the decision.

Records show the couple met in 1969 when she was then a psychology graduate while he was a student at the University of the Philippines-College of Law. They were married on Jan. 5, 1975.

Ma. Theresa said in her petition for annulment that her husband allegedly became controlling, demanding and critical of her during their marriage. She said this marital disharmony escalated through the years.

She was earlier granted by the Catholic Metropolitan Tribunal a canonical annulment of their marriage for “grave lack of discretionary judgment concerning the essential matrimonial rights and obligations to be mutually given and accepted on the part of both husband and wife.” The ruling was upheld by the National Appellate Matrimonial Tribunal on May 17, 2005.

When the case reached the trial court, it denied Ma. Theresa’s petition on Sept. 25, 2006 which cited the prosecution’s failure to establish the judicial antecedence of Edwin’s psychological incapacity.

Guidelines in the declaration of psychological incapacity as a ground for annulment of marriage are provided for by both the Molina doctrine and Article 36.

Villasor was presiding judge of the Pasig City Regional Trial Court Branch 265 when he was named SC assistant court administrator.

Villasor first entered public service in June 1990 as a consultant to then defense undersecretary and now SC Justice Leonardo Quisumbing.