If gay teacher sexually molests student, school is primarily liable

A fourteen year old male student in one prominent Catholic school (name begins with "S") was sexually molested by a gay teacher.
The sexual molestation happened in the student’s bedroom while the teacher was conducting after-class tutorials.
The mother became uncomfortable when she noticed the child’s bedroom was locked while tutorial session were being conducted.
Mother’s instinct told her to command the house-helps to check from the window outside to see what was happening inside the bedroom.
The two house-helps came running back to the mother, shell-shocked as they actually witnessed the teacher’s mouth sucking the child’s penis while seated on the bed.
The teacher was reported to the police and was arrested and jailed.
The innocent child confessed that this had been happening several times already.
The mother’s question is whether the school---aside of course, from the teacher--- has any liability for what happened to the child.
The school was trying to explain to the mother that it had nothing to do with the incident because it happened outside the school premises.
Is the school correct?
No.
The school can be held civilly liable, even if it was done outside the school premises.
The fact that the incident happened outside the school is even irrelevant.
Article 218 of the Family Code provides that the school, its administrators and teachers, shall have special parental authority and responsibility over the minor child while under their supervision, instruction or custody.
Authority and responsibility shall apply to all authorized activities whether inside or outside the premises of the school.
The school likewise can be liable under the civil code.
The teacher is under the employ of the school.
The civil code provides that employers (in this case, the school) shall be liable for the damage caused by their employees (the teacher) acting within the scope of their assigned tasks.
The clause “within the scope of their assigned tasks” includes those acts by the teacher-employee, in furtherance of the interests of the school.
The crucial question is whether or not the teacher was, at the time of the incident, performing act in furtherance of his mater’s business.
It can hardly be debated that, conducting tutorial lessons by the teacher, is something in furtherance of the schools interest of providing quality education.
The fact that the teacher was merely conducting after-class tutorials, and not classroom instruction, does not relieve the school of the burden of rebutting the presumption that there was negligence in the selection and supervision of its teachers.
The complainants, the parents of the child-victim, need only establish the existence of the employer-employee relationship between the school and the erring teacher.
Also the complainants merely need to prove that the teacher was in an act not for an independent purpose of his own (tutorial), but in furtherance of the business of the school.
However, what merely arises is a presumption of negligence on the part of the school.
The school can rebut this presumption by proving that it observed the proper diligence under the circumstances.
The civil code provides that the responsibility of the employer (school) shall cease when it proves that it observed the diligence of a good father of a family to prevent the damage.
The school’s proper diligence would mean diligence in the selection and supervision of its teachers.
Supervision includes formulation of suitable rules and regulation for the guidance of its teachers in conducting tutorials.
It also includes issuance of proper instructions intended for the protection of the public and persons with whom the school has contractual relations, through its teachers.
The school is expected to impose upon its employees the necessary discipline called for, in the performance of any act indispensable to the business and beneficial to the school.
If the school fails to rebut the presumption of negligence, the school will be primarily and solidarily liable with the teacher.
Needless to say, additionally, the teacher will be liable criminally under child abuse law (Republic Act 7610).
Imprisonment under the law ranges from 14 years to 40 years.
It is very important for parents to monitor the activities of their teenage children, even right in their own bedrooms.

LA Times features Dumagueteno’s pastry shop in US

A Dumagueteno family enterprise has successfully exported their local pastry business in the United States.
After thirty years, House of Silvanas, maker of the tastiest crunchy silvanas has reaped rave reviews from discriminating taste buds of American consumers.
The Los Angeles Times recently featured House of Silvanas bakeshop which has opened branches in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The popular pastries traces its origins in a quiet kitchen at the corner of San Jose Street and Rizal Boulevard in Dumaguete.
It was the late Trinidad Teves-Sagarbarria (founder of San Rival) who crafted the recipe of the widely popular silvanas and other pastry products.
Trinidad then shared the recipes to daughter-in-law Mary Ann Demandante Sagarbarria, wife of Martin ‘Cholong’ Sagarbarria to make the delightful pastry products like silvanas and sans rival.
After a while, MaryAnn made some experiments and adjustments to the Silvanas products and added other cake products.
Mary Ann recalls she just baked cakes and made silvanas to close friends while they were living in Manila.
Friends enjoyed Mary Ann’s products and prodded her to open up a pastry shop.
Not long after, in 1978, Mary Ann Sagarbarria opened House of Silvanas in their home in San Lorenzo Makati.
Mary Ann was assisted in Manila by daughter Tricia Abregana.
Through the years, their home became the go-to pastry shop and was frequented by celebrities including Sharon Cuneta, Juan Miguel Salvador, who bought pastries in bulk.
Mary Ann later opened branches in malls in Metro Manila.
Soon, Mary Ann with daughter Kay and sons Manu and Don, with only US$15,000 capital, ventured to the United States and opened the first international branch of House of Silvanas in the city of Torrance.
Since, then House of Silvanas has received rave reviews from the American community.
Early this year, the Los Angeles Times ran a feature of House of Silvanas bakeshop, in its January 16 issue.
Here is that article by Miles Clements
(http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jan/06/food/la-fo-find6-2010jan06):

The Find: House of Silvanas offers colorful, classic Filipino cookies

Crisp, impossibly airy cookies served straight from the freezer, their centers stuffed with slick buttercream, seem almost Space Age. They're somehow both sturdy and weightless. They dissolve the second they touch your tongue. These otherworldly treats are silvanas, colorful and classic Filipino cookies that could easily be mistaken for oversized French macarons.
They're the namesake of House of Silvanas, a months-old sweets shop at the confluence of Silver Lake and Little Armenia. You won't find the place without some confusion -- it's but one of many stalls located inside Kusina, a surprisingly spacious cafeteria-style turo-turo joint where buffet trays are loaded with ruddy links of longganisa sausage and steaming cups of sinigang, a sour tamarind soup, serve as makeshift palate cleansers.
Never mind its humble surroundings -- House of Silvanas has a long, multi-generational history. Its cream-filled tradition began a world away in the Philippines, where Trining Teves-Sagarbarria's pastries were so popular that a business bloomed to satisfy demand. Those renowned recipes became heirlooms, passed down to daughter-in-law Mary Ann, who has now bestowed them upon her daughter Kathryn.
The first branch of House of Silvanas, like Teves-Sagarbarria's L.A. shop, was born out of necessity: Mary Ann launched it in 1995 after neighbors complained of the flood of customers overwhelming her metro Manila home.
An extended network of the Sagarbarria family tends to House of Silvanas' stateside branches, with dessert-driven relatives operating outposts in the Bay Area and the South Bay. Stand-alone stores in Torrance and Carson have come and gone, but the new stall inside Kusina marks a milestone: the bakery's first foray into Los Angeles proper.
Silvanas remain the bake shop's hallmark. The mystery of the cookies is revealed in their deconstruction: a layer of flavored buttercream is sandwiched between a pair of cashew-meringue wafers that are coated in microscopic cookie crumbs. The puck-sized indulgences are available in seven color-coded flavors: ube, buko-pandan, chocolate, strawberry, mango, mocha and plain buttercream.House of Silvanas in LA is at 4716 Fountain Ave ( www.houseofsilvanas.com )

In the photo above: Daughter Kay and Mery Ann Sagarbarria personally manage the US branches of House of Silvanas

Write simply

In our mandatory continuing legal education, the importance of writing good, correct English was highlighted.
The correct way to write and communicate effectively is to write in very simple English (emphasis on "very").
The legal profession is not insulated from people who fail to communicate effectively.
I am not even referring to lawyers.
There are even judges who cannot communicate their decisions effectively.
As a result, their decisions cannot be understood.
One example discussed in the continuing legal education, is that judge whom the court took to task for his manner of writing a decision.
The Supreme Court was apparently pissed of with the judge's writing style, to the extent that the high court quoted verbatim a significant portion of the judge's decision.
It was indeed, horrific.
In the case of Leonor versus Court of Appeals [256 SCRA 69 (1996)], a horrified Supreme Court noted the following portion of a lower court decision:

"This is an action for 'Cancellation of Entry in the Civil Registry' particularly on the marriage contract of one Mauricio Leonor, Jr. and Virginia Amor supposedly to have taken place in a long distance past on March 13, 1960 and after a Rip Van Winkle sleep and dormancy liken to a Mt. Pinatubo explosion that rocked the peace and quiet in the lives of the supposedly participants to this drama in Calatrava and San Carlos City, Negros Occidental when out of the blue one party in the person of an aggrieved left-behind spouse revived and revealed an ancient piece of marital bond between her and a reluctant spouse."

The high court did not mince words in describing the decision.
It described the lower court decision as a "crude attempt at literary sophistication."
The high court criticized its "jarring syntax and grammatical inconsistencies."
It decried the use of "convoluted language."
Need I say more?
Its nice to go back to the basic advice in writing well: K.I.S.S.
Keep It Simple...Stupid.

Change v status quo

The cat is now out of the bag.
Loose talks that Nacionalista Party standard bearer Manny Villar is the secret candidate of Malacanang have gradually been confirmed.
The governor of Cebu Gwendolyn Garcia, an administration ally, has confided that first gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo had called up other members of the Garcia clan to back Villar over the official administration standard bearer Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro.
Contrary to perceptions that the political landscape has been muddled, actually it has become clearer.
Leading to next months elections, it now turns out to be a one-on-one contest between Manny Villar, the candidate backed by the Arroyo administration, against Noynoy Aquino, of the Liberal party, who personifies the opposition.
What happens to Gibo Teodoro?
Sorry to say, he will end up bigo.
He will be junked by his own administration partners in favor of Villar.
Politics is cruel. But that is politics.
The people now have a clearer choice.
If you are for the status quo, then vote for Villar.
If you want change , because you do not like how this country is run, vote for Noynoy.
If you want to go back to the past, vote for Erap.
By the way, I really find funny Villar’s posturing that he swam in a sea of garbage.
For me, anybody who swims in a sea of garbage has some psychiatric issues.
Who is in right mind will even wade in a sea of garbage?
If you think that the Arroyo administration policies should be continued in the next six years, then vote for Villar.
If you want these policies to be recalled and rejected, then vote for Noynoy.
So as we head nearer to the elections, our choice as voters have become simpler and clearer.
Manny Villar for status quo.
Noynoy Aquino for change.
Pick your choice.

Who is this?

Are we looking at the face of a president after June 30?
"God forbid," said one friend.
Is this who Mar Roxas described as "Villarroyo"?