ALEJANDRO ESTRADA, complainant, vs. SOLEDAD S. ESCRITOR, respondent. PUNO, J.

FACTS This is an administrative case filed against Soledad Escritor, court interpreter. In a sworn letter-complaint dated July 27, 2000, complainant Alejandro Estrada wrote to Judge Jose F. Caoibes, Jr., presiding judge of Branch 253, Regional Trial Court of Las Pias City, requesting for an investigation of rumors that respondent Soledad Escritor, court interpreter in said court, is living with a man not her husband. They allegedly have a child of eighteen to twenty years old. Estrada is not personally related either to Escritor or her partner and is a resident not of Las Pias City but of Bacoor, Cavite. Nevertheless, he filed the charge against Escritor as he believes that she is committing an immoral act that tarnishes the image of the court, thus she should not be allowed to remain employed therein as it might appear that the court condones her act. Respondent Escritor for her part averred that when she entered the judiciary in 1999, she was already a widow, her husband having died in 1998. She admitted that she has been living with Luciano Quilapio, Jr. without the benefit of marriage for twenty years and that they have a son. But as a member of the religious sect known as the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Watch Tower and Bible Tract Society, their conjugal arrangement is in conformity with their religious beliefs. In fact, after ten years of living together, she executed on July 28, 1991 a "Declaration of Pledging Faithfulness. In short, her relationship with Quilapio was not immoral as this was sanctioned by her religion. Issue Whether or not respondent should be found guilty of the administrative charge of "gross and immoral conduct." RATIO DECIDENDI NO. Morality is contingent upon one's religion. REASONING Respondent's right to religious freedom has been burdened. There is no doubt that choosing between keeping her employment and abandoning her religious belief and practice and family on the one hand, and giving up her employment and keeping her religious practice and family on the other hand, puts a burden on her free exercise of religion.

In Sherbert, the Court found that Sherbert's religious exercise was burdened as the denial of unemployment benefits "forces her to choose between following the precepts of her religion and forfeiting benefits, on the one hand, and abandoning one of the precepts of her religion in order to accept work, on the other hand." The burden on respondent in the case at bar is even greater as the price she has to pay for her employment is not only her religious precept but also her family which, by the Declaration Pledging Faithfulness, stands "honorable before God and men." The second step is to ascertain respondent's sincerity in her religious belief. Respondent appears to be sincere in her religious belief and practice and is not merely using the "Declaration of Pledging Faithfulness" to avoid punishment for immorality. She did not secure the Declaration only after entering the judiciary where the moral standards are strict and defined, much less only after an administrative case for immorality was filed against her. The Declaration was issued to her by her congregation after ten years of living together with her partner, Quilapio, and ten years before she entered the judiciary. Ministers from her congregation testified on the authenticity of the Jehovah's Witnesses' practice of securing a Declaration and their doctrinal or scriptural basis for such a practice. As the ministers testified, the Declaration is not whimsically issued to avoid legal punishment for illicit conduct but to make the "union" of their members under respondent's circumstances "honorable before God and men." It is also worthy of notice that the Report and Recommendation of the investigating judge annexed letter of the OCA to the respondent regarding her request to be exempt from attending the flag ceremony after Circular No. 62-2001 was issued requiring attendance in the flag ceremony. The OCA's letters were not submitted by respondent as evidence but annexed by the investigating judge in explaining that he was caught in a dilemma whether to find respondent guilty of immorality because the Court Administrator and Deputy Court Administrator had different positions regarding respondent's request for exemption from the flag ceremony on the ground of the Jehovah's Witnesses' contrary belief and practice. Respondent's request for exemption from the flag ceremony shows her sincerity in practicing the Jehovah's Witnesses' beliefs and not using them merely to escape punishment. She is a practicing member of the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Jehovah ministers testified that she is a member in good standing.