EARLY this week, yours truly received a letter from Atty. Peter Sanchez, counsel for Mr. Albert Nocom, who is now locked in a legal fight with his siblings mainly on who should administer/manage the businesses left behind by their late father, Mr. Mariano Nocom Sr.

The demand letter was in connection with the column piece I wrote, ‘Will the real Nocom please stand up?’ and which appeared in this corner last January 26, 2022.

I purposely titled the article that way with a question mark at the end precisely because of doubt as to whether Albert is a “real” Nocom, as he claimed, or he is not, as claimed by his half-brother, Mariano Nocom Jr.

In the spirit of fair play and allowing the other side to be heard and given the column space that everyone deserve, I am now writing about the issue quoting the side of Mr. Albert Nocom.

From the letter of Atty. Sanchez, it appears that Mariano Jr., in an effort to prove that his half-brother, Albert, is an “illegitimate” son of their late father, filed a petition before the court for the cancellation/certification of Albert’s certificate of live birth but this was DENIED by the court even as it also acknowledged the (belated) wedding of Mariano Sr., to Albert’s biological mother, Anacoreta Nocom.

From the decision of the court cited by Atty. Sanchez purportedly dated February 20, 2020, the fact of the matter is that the petitioner, Mariano Jr and his brothers, Manolito and Marcelino, were the “illegitimate” children of their father because he never married their mother, Isabel Torres, who died in 2011.

From my understanding, Mariano Sr. and their mother, Isabel, met and lived together as husband and wife during the Japanese occupation as Mariano Jr. was born in 1944. Later, two more sons would be born, Manolito and Marcelino.

On the other hand, Mariano married Anacoreta in 1958, which as mentioned, was acknowledged by the court. Aside from Albert (born 1973), Mariano Sr., fathered two more children with Anacoreta, Marietta (born 1959) and Caroline (born 1961).

Their father died last February 10, 2019 while their mother passed away six years previously, in 2013.

“Being born during the marriage of their parents, the three (Marietta, Caroline and Albert) were by law, conclusively presumed to be the legitimate children of spouses Nocom Sr. and Anacoreta,” reads part of the court decision cited by Atty. Sanchez in his letter to yours truly.

The decision further noted that it was only several months after their father died that Mariano Jr., questioned the filiation of Albert FOR THE FIRST TIME, on the claim that Albert is an “adopted” son of the family.

The petitioner, the decision noted, never raised the issue before in any legal forum for more than 3 decades but only after their father had passed away and that further, of all Nocom Sr.’s children from his two partners, “only one sibling, the petitioner, questions (sic) the filiation of the respondent sibling.”

And other than this, the court noted that Mariano Jr.’s petition had already prescribed under Article 170 of the Civil Code, which gives a prescription period of only 5 years for such cases.

Already of legal age (about 20 years old) when Mariano Jr., had allegedly learned of Albert’s birth in 1973, Mariano Jr., could have filed his petition against Albert for the following 5 years, or until 1978, but he did not.

“All such legal options prescribed in 1978. Thus, the present petition filed in 2019 is clearly way beyond the prescriptive period,” the court decision said.

And it should rightly be so, dear readers, considering the lapse of 46 years between the date of the petition in 2019 and the birth of Albert in 1973.

Given that this legal issue has been settled in favor of Albert, albeit at the trial court level as early two years ago, why would there be a need for a DNA test to be conducted at all and which is now the demand of Mariano Jr’s camp, as I also briefly discussed in my column cited by Atty. Sanchez.

With both sides of the dispute now presented in this corner, here’s hoping they finally reach a suitable arrangement.

Hindi naman siguro mahirap ‘yan, dahil magkakapatid naman pala kayo, hane?