Facts
Cheryll Santos Leus was hired by St. Scholastica’s College Westgrove (SSCW), a Catholic educational institution, as non-teaching personnel. Sometime in 2003, Leus and her boyfriend conceived a child out of wedlock. When SSCW discovered such a fact, Leus was advised by the School Directress to file a resignation letter. Despite her refusal to do so, the School still terminated her on the grounds of serious misconduct and conduct unbecoming of an employee of a Catholic school.
The Labor Arbiter ruled that there was a valid ground for dismissal, holding that Leus failed to live up to the Catholic values taught by SSCW to its students. The NLRC and CA affirmed this ruling, citing disgraceful or immoral conduct as a just cause for her dismissal.
ISSUE: Is getting pregnant out of wedlock a conduct that is disgraceful or immoral?
Ruling
In Chua-Qua vs. Clave, the Court stressed that to constitute immorality, the circumstances of each particular case must be holistically considered and evaluated in light of the prevailing norms of conduct. Thus, the determination of whether a conduct is disgraceful or immoral involves a two-step process:
Consideration of the totality of the circumstances surrounding the conduct; and
Assessment of the said circumstances vis-a-vis the prevailing norms of conduct–i.e., what society generally considers moral and respectable.
However, it must be noted that it is public and secular morality that should determine the prevailing norms, not religious morality.
Under the prevailing norms of conduct, (1) if the father of the child is himself unmarried, the woman is not ordinarily administratively liable for disgraceful and immoral conduct. On the other hand, if the father of the child is married to a woman other than the mother, there is a cause for administrative sanction against either the father or the mother. The “disgraceful and immoral conduct” consists of having extramarital relations.
In this case, it was not disputed that the father of the child, like Leus, was unmarried. Hence, Leus cannot be held liable for disgraceful and immoral conduct simply because she gave birth to her child out of wedlock.