A.C. No. 10689 [Formerly CBD Case No. 11-3171] - ROMEO A. ALMARIO, COMPLAINANT, VS. ATTY. DOMINICA LLERA-AGNO.D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

accordingly and that suspension is the appropriate penalty for such infraction. The sole issue that this Court must thus address is the appropriate penalty to be meted out against respondent lawyer. Our Ruling The importance of the affiant's personal appearance when a document is notarized is underscored by Section 1, Rule II of the 2004 Rules on Notarial Practice which states: SECTION 1. Acknowledgment. - 'Acknowledgment' refers to an act in which an individual on a single occasion: (a) appears in person before the notary public and presents an integrally complete instrument or document; (b) is attested to be personally known to the notary public or identified by the notary public through competent evidence of identity as defined by these Rules; and (c) represents to the notary public that the signature on the instrument or document was voluntarily affixed by him for the purposes stated in the instrument or document, declares that he has executed the instrument or document as his free and voluntary act and deed, and, if he acts in a particular representative capacity, that he has the authority to sign in that capacity. (Emphasis supplied) Furthermore, Section 2(b), Rule IV of the same Rules provides that: (b) A person shall not perform a notarial act if the person involved as signatory to the instrument or document - (1) is not in the notary's presence personally at the time of the notarization; and (2) is not personally known to the notary public or otherwise identified by the notary public through competent evidence of identity as defined by these Rules. (Emphasis supplied) These provisions mandate the notary public to require the physical or personal presence of the person/s who executed a document, before notarizing the same, In other words, a document should not be notarized unless the person/s who is/are executing it is/are personally or physically present before the notary public. The personal and physical presence of the parties to the deed is necessary to enable the notary public to verify the genuineness of the signature/s of the affiant/s therein and the due execution of the document. Notaries public are absolutely prohibited or forbidden from notarizing a fictitious or spurious document. They are the law's vanguards and sentinels against illegal deeds. The confidence of the public in the integrity of notarial acts would be undermined and impaired if notaries public do not observe with utmost care the basic requirements in the performance of their duties spelled out in the notarial law. This Court, in Ferguson v. Atty. Ramos , [16] held that "notarization is not an empty, meaningless and routinary act[; i]t is imbued with public interest x x x." In cognate or similar cases, [17] this Court likewise held that a notary public must not notarize a document unless the persons who signed it are the very same persons who executed the same, and personally appeared before him to attest to the truth of the contents thereof. The purpose of this