This case stemmed from (1) the undated letter¹ of Ramon Ona-Ligaya (Ligaya) of Olongapo City, addressed to then Chief Justice Artemio V. Panganiban, and the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), expressing disappointment over the appointment of Ma. Ellen Aguilar (Aguilar) as judge of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Burgos, Pangasinan, since she had been charged with several criminal offenses involving moral turpitude; and (2) the Indorsement letter² dated December 4, 2006 of the Office of the City Legal Officer of Olongapo City, referring to the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) for appropriate action the decision of the Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon in OMB-L-A-03-0718-G,³ which imposed upon Atty. Aguilar, formerly City Legal Officer of Olongapo City, a fine equivalent to one month salary.

For the antecedent factual background of the charges, we refer to the report of Associate Justice Teresita Dy-Liacco Flores (Dy-Liacco Flores) of the Court of Appeals, who was later tasked by the Court to investigate the present administrative matter against Judge Aguilar. Investigating Justice Dy-Liacco Flores found that:

Sometime on July 2, 1998, while [Atty. Aguilar] was still the Legal Officer of Olongapo City, mortgagor Lourdes Sison and mortgagee Angelina Cuevas came to her office together, asking her to notarize a prepared real estate mortgage contract. The document showed that it was a security for a loan of P120,000.00. [Atty. Aguilar] acceded. Later, Sison and Cuevas returned with a different document. It was obviously the same real estate mortgage contract between the parties but the amount of the loan was now raised to P140,000.00. The parties explained that this is the real agreement between them. [Atty. Aguilar] notarized it in replacement of the previous document, deeming the first cancelled. Hence, the second document carried the same entries like document number, book number and the like as the first document. Either by oversight or inattentiveness, the secretary of Atty. Aguilar put the two documents together.

Sometime in 2002, Arnel Sison, the son of mortgagor Lourdes Sison, discovered the existence of the two documents with different amounts but one notarial document number. Furious, he went to see then Atty. Aguilar. She explained to him the circumstances under which both documents were notarized. Unappeased, Arnel Sison filed complaints for Falsification of Public Document, Perjury and Estafa against Atty. Aguilar and Angelina Cuevas before (1) the Office of the Regional State Prosecutor of Bataan AND (2) the Office of the Ombudsman.⁴

The complaint for Falsification of Public Document, Perjury and Estafa against Atty. Aguilar and Angelina Cuevas was filed by Arnel Sison before the Regional State Prosecutor, and was docketed as I.S. Nos. 03-S-2282 to 03-S-2284. After preliminary investigation, Angelito V. Lumabas, Acting City Prosecutor of Olongapo City, issued a Resolution⁵ dated March 2, 2004, dismissing the complaint for lack of probable cause.

Meanwhile, proceedings on Arnel Sison's complaint for Dishonesty and Misconduct against Atty. Aguilar, filed before the Ombudsman and docketed as OMB-L-A-03-0718-G, continued. Atty. Aguilar filed her counter-affidavit therein on October 2, 2003.

Following her retirement as City Legal Officer of Olongapo City effective December 13, 2003, Atty. Aguilar, through a letter⁶ dated September 3, 2004, addressed to the JBC Chairman, applied for the position of judge, preferably at the RTC Branch 71, of Iba, Zambales. In support of her application, Atty. Aguilar accomplished and submitted a Personal Data Sheet (PDS), which consisted of four pages. Question No. 23 of the PDS asked: Is there any pending civil, criminal or administrative (including disbarment) case or complaint filed against you pending before any court, prosecution office, any other office, agency or instrumentality of the government, or the Integrated Bar of the Philippines?