Jessette Amihope Castor

1-5A

Jose De Ocampo, petitioner

vs.
Serafina Florenciano, respondent
February 23,1960
GR No. L-13663

Bengzon,J.

FACTS:
Jose de Ocampo and Serafina Florenciano were married in 1938. They begot several children
who are not living with petitioner. In March 1951, latter discovered on several occasions that his wife
was betraying his trust by maintaining illicit relations with Jose Arcalas. Having found out, he sent the
wife to Manila in June 1951 to study beauty culture where she stayed for one year. Again petitioner
discovered that the wife was going out with several other men other than Arcalas. In 1952, when the
wife finished her studies, she left petitioner and since then they had lived separately. In June 1955,
petitioner surprised his wife in the act of having illicit relations with Nelson Orzame. He signified his
intention of filing a petition for legal separation to which defendant manifested conformity provided she
is not charged with adultery in a criminal action. Accordingly, Ocampo filed a petition for legal
separation in 1955.

ISSUE:
Whether the confession made by Florenciano constitutes the confession of judgment disallowed
by the Family Code.

HELD:
Florenciano’s admission to the investigating fiscal that she committed adultery, in the existence
of evidence of adultery other than such confession, is not the confession of judgment disallowed by
Article 48 of the Family Code. What is prohibited is a confession of judgment, a confession done in court
or through a pleading. Where there is evidence of the adultery independent of the defendant’s
statement agreeing to the legal separation, the decree of separation should be granted since it would
not be based on the confession but upon the evidence presented by the petitioner. What the law
prohibits is a judgment based exclusively on defendant’s confession. The petition should be granted
based on the second adultery, which has not yet prescribed.