REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES

11th Judicial Region

Regional Trial Court
Branch 18
DIGOS CITY

JUANA DELA CRUZ.

Petitioner,
Civil Case No. 34,
489-17
-versus-
For:

JUAN DELA CRUZ. DECLARATION OF

Respondent NULLITY OF
MARRIAGE under
Art. 36 of the Civil
Code

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JUDICIAL AFFIDAVIT
OF EXPERT WITNESS DR. VERNON LOPEZ
I, VERNON LOPEZ, of legal age, Filipino, married and a
resident of Estrada Street, Digos City, under oath aver:

1. I am being examined by Atty. Pamela Carr Holt, whose

office is located at 34 Rose Street, Digos City, for my
direct testimony in the case entitled Juana dela Cruz vs
Juan dela Cruz as Civil Case No. 34, 489-17 for
Declaration of Nullity of Marriage, pending at the
Regional Trial Court of Digos, Branch 18;

2. I am answering her questions to me fully conscious

that they are under oath and that I may face criminal
liability for false testimony or perjury;

3. I am providing answers to my examination based on

my personal knowledge being the psychiatrist engaged
by the petitioner in this case to conduct the Psychiatric
Study and evaluation of the parties, to wit:

Q1: What is your current profession?

A1: I am a medical doctor.

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Q2: What field in medicine are you practising or
specializing?

A2: I am practising in the field of Psychiatric

medicine. (Attached herein is Dr. Vernon’s
Biodata marked as Exhibit “A”)

Q3: How long are you practising the medical

specialty of Psychiatry?

A3: I have been practicing psychiatry since 1992

when I entered residency training in
Psychiatry and it has been 22 years already.

Q4: Did you know the petitioner in this case?

A4: Yes, ma’am.

Q5: How did you meet her?

A5: She came to my clinic sometime in February

2018 to request for a psychiatric evaluation
on the person of her husband in relation to a
case of Declaration of Nullity of Marriage that
she had filed.

Q6: How did you conduct the psychiatric

evaluation?

A6: I did the standard procedure which was to do

a detailed psychiatric history and mental
status examination by psychiatric interviews
with the petitioner. I also subjected the
petitioner to a battery of psychological tests.
Collateral informants were interviewed. The
information gathered was then studied and
collated to make a written report.

Q7: Who were the persons interviewed?

A7: Aside from the Spouses, I interviewed Ms.

Juliana dela Cruz-Acosta, the older sister of
the respondent, Jing dela Cruz, Mother of
respondent, Moira Gomez, mother of
petitioner and Jose dela Cruz.

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Q8: How many times did you interview these
people?

A8: I had three sessions each with the Spouses,

and one session each with their family
members.

Q9: How long does one session last?

A9: One session lasts up to three (3) hours.

Q10: What conclusion did you reach on the

personality of the Petitioner?

A10: I assess the Petitioner to be suffering from

minor lapses in her mental and psychological
well-being, however, my findings do not
render her incapable of entering into
marriage and fulfilling the marital obligations
that come with it.

Q11: How about the petitioner?

A11: Respondent Juan dela Cruz is suffering from

Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Q12: In terms that could be understood even by a

layman, could you please elaborate on the
disorder of the Respondent?

A12: This is characterized by a pervasive pattern

of grandiosity, need for admiration and lack
of empathy as indicated by the following: he
has as a grandiose sense of self importance,
he has a sense of entitlement, he is
interpersonally exploitative where he takes
advantage of others to achieve his own ends,
he lacks empathy where he is unwilling to
recognize or identify with the feelings of his
wife and he showed arrogant behaviors.

Q13: Is it a serious or grave personality disorder?

A13: Yes, it is a serious personality disorder. This

pathologic personality was the main reason
why Respondent Juan was unable to:

a. Cherish and give love to Petitioner Juana

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 b. Provide financial, emotional and psychological
support to Petitioner Juana;

c. Respect Petitioner Juana; and

d. Protect Petitioner Juana from pain and harm;

Q14: How does one person acquires such personality

disorder?

A14: A person can acquire this type of personality

disorder from the learnings and values she got
from the different environments for which she
was exposed to during her developmental
years. By age 18 years old, the character traits
composing her personality will have been in
place and fixed already.

Q15: Is it pathological?

A15: Yes, ma’am.

Q16: Is it curable?

A16: No, it is incurable.

Q17: How does such personality disorder affect the

behaviour or traits of the person suffering from
it in dealing with other person?

A17: Such personality disorders become rigid,

pervasive and constant. This means that
whoever this person deals with, needs to be the
one who should always adjust because a
personality disordered person cannot adjust to
the other person. Due to this, they encounter
interpersonal problems because the personality
disorder puts strain to the relationship,
especially felt by those whom they have close
and intimate relationships with. Eventually, the
other person will be emotionally affected and
stressed in having to always bend and cope
with the character and attitude of the one who
has a personality disorder. What puts additional
problem in the relationship is that they are not
aware that they have a problem and
comfortable with the behaviour, hence a

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 partner who tries to correct the behaviour will
be met by resistance to say the least.

Q18: What are the traits of a person suffering from

personality disorder?

A18: Respondent Juan’s Narcissistic Personality

Disorder traits are manifested by the following:

(1) His noted sense of entitlement, by

his unreasonable demands to
Petitioner Juana and expectations
for automatic compliance;

(2) His being personality exploitative,

by taking advantage of Petitioner
Juana’s feelings for him;

(3) His lack of empathy, by his inability

to recognize the feelings and needs
of Petitioner Juana;

(4) His arrogant and violent behaviour

– as manifested by being physically
abusive.

Q19: Were you able to determine when did

Respondent Juan acquire such personality
disorder?

A19: Respondent Juan’s Narcissistic Personality

Disorder was already present before the
celebration of his marriage with Petitioner
Juana, showed precedence. Signs of pathologic
character traits were already manifesting even
before Petitioner Juana and Respondent Juan
met.

Q20: What are you prognoses with respect to the

personality of Petitioner Juana?

A20: That she was noted to have some rigid character

traits but these were still considered to be within
the normal limits of behaviour. Her upbringing
taught her to be assertive if she thought she is
right and in several cases, it was noted that she
just decides to follow Respondent and not push
her will over his to maintain peace in the
household.

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 Q21: What are your prognoses with respect to the
personality disorder of Respondent Juan?

A21: Prognosis is poor because she has no insight.

This means that she has no awareness of her
illness and is in fact comfortable with her
behaviour making her resistant to treatment and
change. Due to this, success of treatment will be
low making her illness incurable.

Q22: Do you remember executing any Psychiatric

Report in relation to this case?

A22: Yes, ma’am.

Q23: I have here a document which purports to be a

psychiatric evaluation report, dated February 21,
2018, can you please kindly go over it and tell
this Honorable court its relation to the document
you are referring to.

A24: It is the same psychiatric evaluation report I

made in relation to this case. I have attached
herein and marked the Psychiatric Report as
Exhibit “B”.

Q25: Whose signature is this appearing above the

name Vernon Lopez found at the last portion of
the Psychiatric Report?

A25: It’s my signature.

4. I am executing this affidavit to attest to the truth of the

foregoing facts for all legal purposes it may serve.

Affiant Sayeth Further None. June 30, 2018 Digos City,

Philippines.

VERNON LOPEZ
Affiant

SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN to before me this 30th day

of June 2018, in the City of Digos, Philippines, Affiant
personally appeared and I hereby certify that I have
examined him and I am satisfied that he executed this
Affidavit based on his own personal knowledge and belief and
that the same is his free and voluntary act and deed

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 SWORN ATTESTATION

I, ATTY. PAMELA CARR HOLT, of legal age, with

office address at 34 Rose Street, Digos City and a lawyer by
profession, attest, under oath, that I have conducted the
sworn examination of Vernon Lopez Judicial Affidavit and
further that :

(1) I have faithfully recorded, or caused to be

recorded, the questions I asked and the
corresponding answers that the above-
named witness gave; and

(2) I did not, nor any other person, coach the

above named witness answers to my
examination.

AFFIANT SAYETH FURTHER NONE. June 30, 2018,

Digos City.

ATTY. PAMELA CARR HOLT

Affiant

SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN to before me this 16th day

of June 2018, in the City of Digos, Philippines, Affiant
personally appeared and I hereby certify that I have
examined him and I am satisfied that he executed this
Affidavit based on his own personal knowledge and belief and
that the same is her free and voluntary act and deed.

Doc. No. 15 ;
Page No. 18 ;
Book No. 20;
Series of 2018