Atty. Gregorio B. Austral, CPA
Morality: Whose Standard to Apply?
This question already finds a clear answer from the Supreme Court: morality should be gauged based on secular standards.
In the case of Cheryll Santos Leus vs. St. Scholastica’s College Westgrove, the Supreme Court has made it clear that on the issue of the charge of immorality as a ground for dismissing an employee, the morality referred to in the law is public and necessarily secular, not religious.
Despite the clear ruling in Leus, the issue of immorality has again been brought to the fore in another case, Zaida R. Inocente vs. St. Vincent Foundation for Children and Aging, Inc./Veronica Menguito. G.R. No. 202621, June 22, 2016.
In 2000, St. Vincent hired Zaida as Program Assistant; it promoted her as Program Officer the following year. Zaida, then single, was known as Zaida Febrer Ranido. Zaida’s duties as program officer included the following: monitoring and supervising the implementation of the programs of the foundation, providing training to the staff and sponsored members, formulating and developing program policies for the foundation, facilitating staff meetings, coordinating and establishing linkages with other resource agencies and persons, as well as preparing St. Vincent’s annual program plan and budget, and year-end reports.
In 2001, Zaida met Marlon D. Inocente. Marlon was then assigned at St. Vincent’s Bataan sub-project. In 2002, Marlon was transferred to St. Vincent’s sub-project in Quezon City. Zaida and Marlon became close and soon became romantically involved with each other. St. Vincent adopted a controversial policy called Non-Fraternization Policy which states as follows: “While CFCA does not wish to interfere with the off-duty and personal conduct of its employees, to prevent unwarranted sexual harassment claims, uncomfortable working relationships, morale problems among other employees, and even the appearance of impropriety, employees who direct and coordinate the work of others are strongly discouraged from engaging in consensual romantic or sexual relationships with any employee or volunteer of CFCA.”
Despite St. Vincent’s adoption of the Non-Fraternization Policy, Zaida and Marlon discretely continued their relationship; they kept their relationship private and unknown to St. Vincent even after Marlon resigned in July 2008.
On February 19, 2009, Zaida experienced severe abdominal pain requiring her to go to the hospital. The doctor later informed her that she had suffered a miscarriage. While confined at the hospital, Zaida informed St. Vincent of her situation. Menguito verbally allowed Zaida to go on maternity leave until April 21, 2009. Zaida was released from the hospital two days after her confinement. But later on, St. Vincent dismissed Zaida for violation of the Non-Fraternization Policy.
The Court said that, to be sure, no reasonable person could have expected them to sever the relationship simply because St. Vincent chose to adopt the Non-Fraternization Policy in 2006. As Zaida aptly argued, love is not a mechanical emotion that can easily be turned on and off. This is the lesson Shakespeare impressed on us in Romeo and Juliet – a play whose setting antedated those of Marlon and Zaida by about 405 hundred years.
In determining whether the acts complained of constitute “disgraceful and immoral” behavior under the Civil Service Laws, the distinction between public and secular morality on the one hand, and religious morality, on the other hand, should be kept in mind. This distinction as expressed – albeit not exclusively – in the law, on the one hand, and religious morality, on the other, is important because the jurisdiction of the Court extends only to public and secular morality.
In this case, we note that both Zaida and Marlon at all times had no impediments to marry each other. They were adults who met at work, dated, fell in love and became sweethearts. The intimate sexual relations between them were consensual, borne by their love for one another and which they engaged in discreetly and in strict privacy. They continued their relationship even after Marlon left St. Vincent in 2008. And, they took their marriage vows soon after Zaida recovered from her miscarriage, thus validating their union in the eyes of both men and God.
All these circumstances show the sincerity and honesty of the relationship between Zaida and Marlon. They also show their genuine regard and love for one another – a natural human emotion that is neither shameless, callous, nor offensive to the opinion of the upright and respectable members of the secular community. While their actions might not have strictly conformed with the beliefs, ways, and mores of St. Vincent – which is governed largely by religious morality – or with the personal views of its officials, these actions are not prohibited under any law nor are they contrary to conduct generally accepted by society as respectable or moral.