REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES

THIRD (3RD) JUDICIAL REGION

REGIONAL TRIAL COURT
Malolos City, Bulacan
Branch No. 69

ROMEO H. MONTAGUE,
Petitioner,

-versus- Civil Case No. 487-M-2011

For: Nullity of Marriage

JULIET W. CAPULET-MONTAGUE,
Respondent,
x----------------------------------------------x

JUDICIAL AFFIDAVIT
of Petitioner Romeo H. Montague

I, ROMEO H. MONTAGUE, of legal age, Filipino, and a

resident of No. 99 King's Road, Hamlet Village, Caloocan City, to this
Honorable Court, most respectfully submit this affidavit, which will
constitute and serve as my Direct Testimony in this petition pursuant
to Administrative Matter No. 12-8-8-SC, otherwise known as the
“Judicial Affidavit Rule”.

I hereby attest that my counsel, Atty. William A. Shakespeare,

conducted and/or supervised my examination, as duly recorded in
this affidavit, in his office address, located at the 8th Floor, Piccadilly
Corporate Center, Abbey Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City. I further
attest that, in executing this affidavit, I was fully conscious that I did
so under oath, and well aware that I may face criminal liability for
any false testimony or perjury contained therein.

MANIFESTATION

The direct testimony of petitioner Romeo H. Montague is being

offered for the following purposes:
 a. To prove the material allegations contained in the
Petition, specifically as to (i) the fact of the marriage of
petitioner and respondent, (ii) the circumstances and/or
characteristics of their relationship prior and subsequent
to their marriage, (iii) their lack of children, and (iv) the
state of their property regime; and

b. To identify pertinent documents (i) directly

referenced in the Petition, (ii) previously pre-marked
during the Pre-Trial Conference, and (iii) material to his
cause of action, but was inadvertently not pre-marked
during the said conference.

1. Question (“Q”) Mr. Witness, please state your name,

occupation and other personal circumstances for the record.

Answer (“A”) I am Romeo H. Montague, thirty-nine (39)

years old, residing at No. 99 King's Road, Hamlet Village,
Caloocan City, with domicile at 19 Brgy. Galas, San Rafael,
Bulacan.

I am a rice trader, and the manager of the wholesale and retail

general store of my parents, which is located at the public
market in Brgy. Cruz na Daan, San Rafael, Bulacan.

2. Q. Mr. Witness, are you the same “Romeo H. Montague”

who is the petitioner in this case?

A. Yes, I am the same person. I am the petitioner in this case.

3. Q. And what is your relationship, if any, with the

respondent in this case, “Juliet W. Capulet-Montague”?

A. The respondent, who I know as “Juliet”, is my estranged

wife.

4. Q. Kindly take us back to the beginning, Mr. Witness. How

did you first (1st) become acquainted with the respondent?

A. Juliet and I became acquainted sometime in 1988, when

the two (2) of us were actively involved in the activities of our
local parish church in Brgy. Cruz na Daan, San Rafael, Bulacan.
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 I served as a sacristan, while Juliet regularly volunteered as an
organ player for the church choir, usually during weekends.

5. Q. How old were the two (2) of you at that time?

A. I was around fifteen (15) years old when we finally

became acquainted. Juliet was nineteen (19) years old at that
time, I believe. She was already in college.

6. Q. You said “finally”. So you knew the respondent prior to

your having met in church?

A. Yes, I knew who Juliet was even before we were

introduced. She is a Capulet. She belongs to one of the most
prominent families not only in our parish, but perhaps in our
whole town.

7. Q. How so?

A. Well, the Capulets, particularly in our town of San Rafael,

Bulacan, enjoy considerable social standing. They were
considered Buena Familia. Her relatives held important
government positions, and ran impressive businesses –
particularly trucking ventures, petroleum gas stations, and
bonded warehouses. Even as a teenager, I was aware that
Juliet’s parents ran successful businesses in both Bulacan and in
Manila.

Besides, a lot of the boys in our parish, including myself,

harboured crushes on Juliet. But I was too intimidated by her
social standing to even imagine that I could court her. Also, she
was older than I was.

8. Q. Can you tell us how the two (2) of you got close?

A. Like I said, the two (2) of us were very active in our local
parish church. The youth ministry was like a tight-knit
barkada, so that once you become part of the group, you were
bound to get close to one another.

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 I actually intended to court a cousin of Juliet’s, who was closer
to my own age. At first, I wanted Juliet to help me court her
cousin, perhaps even act as a romantic “bridge”.

9. Q. Then what happened, if any?

A. Well, every time I asked Juliet to help me court her

cousin, I found that she would actively discourage me, saying
that her cousin and I were not compatible. She was able to
persuade me not to go through with my original intentions.

And since we were spending so much time together, our

friends in the youth ministry started teasing us. Sooner than
later, perhaps encouraged by our youth, we started joking with
one another, wrote corny letters to one another, before we
eventually decided to pursue a secret relationship as boyfriend
and girlfriend.

10. Q. Why did you keep the relationship a secret?

A. To be honest, despite the teasing, when members of our

families suspected that Juliet and I were in a relationship, they
expressed a lot of reservations, which specifically centered on
the differences in our ages and family backgrounds. My
parents, for one were very apprehensive, doing their best to
discourage the match. They made issue with the fact that Juliet
was a Wallace on her mother’s side, and was technically a
distant cousin since my mother was a Wallace too. Juliet told
me that her family felt the same way.

As a result, Juliet and I only saw each other during the

weekends, in church mostly, partly because Juliet was already
in college and stayed in Manila during the week days, and
partly because I did not want my parents to worry too much,
particularly my mother.

11. Q. How long were you two (2) together?

A. On and off, we were a couple for seven (7) years, from
1989 to 1996.

12. Q. How would you characterize this initial relationship?

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 A. At first, it was a “you and me against the world”- type of
relationship.

Juliet would often tell me that she did not get along with
members of her family, particularly her Mom and siblings, and
expressed that she wanted to leave home and be married to me
as soon as I finished college. Of course, I was flattered in a way.
Imagine-a Capulet saw me as her knight in shining armor!

Then it slowly became difficult for me. Juliet, being older, was
very domineering and mostly got her way. Even then, she was
very possessive and controlling, and often got jealous of other
girls, more so because she knew that I was slowly getting a
reputation for being a ladies’ man in school.

13. Q. You said that respondent, as a girlfriend, was already

possessive and controlling. How so? Do you mind giving us
examples of such behaviour on her end, if any?

A. Well, the one that stands out really was when, after I
qualified for entry at the Philippine Military Academy in
Baguio, Juliet demanded that I enroll at a different educational
institution. I really wanted to be a military officer back then, but
Juliet argued that a military life will encourage me to cheat on
her. All soldiers are womanizers, she would say. We would get
into huge fights. In the end, I just wanted her to get off my case,
so I relented and enrolled somewhere else for college, much to
the disappointment of my parents.

And I don’t ever remember Juliet not being jealous. She was
always jealous of other girls-and of the time I spent with my
friends. She would often provoke fights with me when I am
around other girls or when she hears gossip about this or that
girl having a crush on me.

She often threatened to hurt herself should she discover that I

was cheating on her.

14. Q. But were you cheating on her at the time?

A. I’m sorry to say that I cheated on Juliet pretty regularly

during that time. I was very young and immature. I was
studying in Baguio, away from Juliet and from own family, and

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 with a lot of girls tending to be very forward with me. I was
free to do what I pleased. At one time, I was even juggling two
(2) other girlfriends aside from Juliet.

15. Q. How did that make you feel, if anything?

A. Well, I felt rebellious more than anything, and which was

liberating. Cheating on Juliet made me feel in control. When
we were together, she was always in control—she dictated me
what I could or could not do. She even told me what kind of
clothes to wear when I would go out to drink with friends!

And I also enjoyed being intimate with other girls to be honest,

and I craved for it. Juliet and I did not have sex, you see. Even
when we were kissing. Juliet would always stop me from being
too aggressive. She told me that sex was dirty, and that she
would only have sex with me after the two (2) of us got
married.

16. Q. You mentioned earlier that your relationship with

respondent, on and off, lasted until 1996. What happened then,
if any?

A. I ended the relationship sometime in May 1996. All that

time, I was already based in Caloocan City, after I decided to
transfer from St. Louie University in Baguio to Metro Manila-
based university after the disastrous earthquake of 1990. My
relationship with Juliet had greatly deteriorated. We were just
fighting all the time, and she was always threatening to hurt
herself if I brought up the subject of breaking up with her.

Also, I was seeing another girl then. And that girl was so
different from Juliet. Not only did we have sex regularly, but
she tended to take care of me. We did not fight. She was not
always jealous of friends, and every other girl I talk to.

And so I broke up with Juliet. For a few months, I severed all

ties with her, avoiding any kind of communication with her.

17. Q. What happened next, if any? Did the two (2) of you
reconcile?

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 A. Not long after our break-up, Juliet aggressively sought to
contact me, and even persuaded people who live in my
apartment complex to help her do so. She would often call and
even visit me, which was surprising because she never did so
previously. Juliet claimed that she wanted to change her ways
in order to win me back. And she became more attentive, more
thoughtful. Juliet would even cook food for me.

Around November 1996, Juliet persuaded me to get back

together with her.

18. Q. How would you characterize with your relationship with

the respondent the second time around?

A. It was admittedly intense. While Juliet became more

attentive, she still often lapsed to her default mode: possessive,
domineering, and controlling. She also kept pressuring me to
marry her, and take her away from her family. At the time, she
kept complaining to me about her family, how she couldn’t get
along with her mother and siblings. She believed that our
marriage will ultimately heal her sense of misery and
inadequacy arising from her cold and distant relationship with
her family.

And Juliet kept hinting, threatening really, that she would put
herself to harm if things didn’t change, or if I didn’t marry her
soon.

19. Q. Mr. Witness, your last statements are rather grave. Do

you have any proof that respondent made those kinds of
threats?

A. Yes, I do. I kept most of her letters, and these letters often
hinted that she was ready to hurt herself.

20. Q. Mr. Witness, I am showing you a stack of six (6)

handwritten letters, one (1) of which is undated, while the rest
are dated 03 December 1996, 07 July 1997, 08 and 09 August
1997, and 15 October 1997, respectively. This same handwritten
letters were previously pre-marked as your Exhibits “H” to
“M”. Are thesse the same letters that you just referred to?

A. Yes, these are the same letters. Some of them at least.

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21. Q. Why do you say that these letters are from respondent?
A. Juliet personally gave me all these letters, which are in
her own handwriting and bearing her signatures—both of
which I am very familiar with.

Manifestation and Motion: Let it be noted on the

record that Petitioner is referring to original copies
of six (6) handwritten letters, previously identified,
authenticated and pre-marked during the course of
Pre-Trial as Exhibits “H” to “M”, one (1) of which is
undated, while the rest are dated 03 December 1996,
07 July 1997, 08 and 09 Augusts 1997, and 15
October 1997, respectively.

Petitioner attaches hereto machine copies of

the aforementioned handwritten letters, which
petitioner warrants as faithful reproductions of the
originals, and make the same integral parts hereof,
subject to respondent comparing the same with the
originals and/or stipulating as to their authenticity,
if so warranted.

Petitioner requests this Honorable Court to

make permanent the pre-markings in the
aforementioned handwritten letters.

22. Q. Mr. Witness, I am also showing to you another undated

handwritten letter, consisting of two (2) pages of stationary,
with the white back portion of the second (2nd) page baring the
words “Huling Habilin”. Is this letter likewise from
respondent.

A. Yes, this is also a letter from Juliet.

23. Q. Why do you say that this letter is from respondent?

A. Like the other letters, Juliet personally gave this one to
me, which is also in her own handwriting and bearing her
signature.

Manifestation and Motion: Petitioner requests

this Honorable Court to cause the marking of the
undated handwritten letter as his Exhibit “R”, with
its two (2) lined pages sub-marked as Exhibits “R-1”

8
 to “R-2”, and the unlined back portion of the second
(2nd) page as Exhibit “R-3”.

Petitioner attaches hereto a machine copy of the

aforementioned handwritten letter, which petitioner
warrants as a faithful reproduction of the original,
and make the same an integral part hereof, subject
to respondent comparing the same with the original
and/or stipulating as to its authenticity, if so
warranted.

Petitioner requests this Honorable Court to make

permanent the markings in the aforementioned
handwritten letter.

24. Q. Mr Witness, do you mind reading, for the record, the

main body of the handwritten letter dated 07 July 1997, that
respondent sent to you?

A. The letter reads:

“Inip na inip na ‘ko sa buhay ko. Hindi na ‘ko

nag-e-enjoy sa mga nangyayari sa ‘kin. Tulungan
mo naman ako baka kung anong maisipan kong
gawin. Hindi na ‘ko Masaya, anong gagawin ko?
Kung tuluyan na ba ‘kong lalayo sa inyong lahat
yong habambuhay na talaga mami-miss mo ba ‘ko?
Yon na lang niisip kong solusyon sa problema ka,
kesa naman sa masira ang ulo ko ditto. Tutal, hindi
mo rin naman ako matutulungan sino pang
tutulong sa ‘kin eh di ibang tao. Baka tandaan mo
lang palagi na mahal kita, mahal na mahal. Kahit
hindi mo ‘ko gano’n kamahal.”

25. Q. Mr. Witness, do you mind reading, for the record, the
highlighted portions of the handwritten letter dated 08 August
1997, that respondent sent to you?

A. The highlighted portions of the letter reads:

“Kailan mo ba ‘ko kukunin dito sa bahay?

Inip na inip na ‘ko ditto. Hindi ordinaryong inip,
ha! Pakiramdam ko wala ‘kong kasilbi-silbi parang

9
 wala na ‘kong kuwentang tao. Pakiramdam ko wala
nang halaga ang buhay ko kahit na mamatay ako
ngayon ayos lang tuttal hindi ka naman siguradong
iiyak x x x x

xxxx

x x x x Pero bakit sa hirap na nararamdaman

ko ngayon ako lang mag-isa wala akong karamay?
Hindio mo ba naiintindihan ang nararamdaman
ko? Yong hirap ng loob na tinitiis ko? Depressed na
depressed ako, akala mo ba. Pakiramdam ko nag-
iisa na ‘ko sa mundo. Gusto ko lang naming maging
tahimik at payapa na ang buhay ko ayaw mo
naman x x x x

xxxx

Kahit na ayaw mo ‘kong tulungan (ayaw mo

kong kunin ditto) ayos lang. Ganon’n daw yon eh
hagga’t hindi nawawala

Sa ‘yo ang isang tao hindi mo nalalaman ang

kahalagan nito sa ‘yo. Kapag may nangyari h’wag
akong sisihin mo. Nangyari ‘yon hindi lang dahil sa
desisyon ko kundi isa ka rin sa nagtulak sa “kin
para gawin ang bagay na yon.

x x x x”

26. Q. Mr. Witness, do you mind reading , for the record, the
highlighted portions of the handwritten letter dated 09 August
1997, that respondent sent to you?

A. The highlighted portions of the letter reads:

”Kailan mo ba ko kukunin dito? Inip na inip na ‘ko.

Sana naman bilisan mo baka mawala ako sa’yo.

x x x x”

27. Q. Mr. Witness, after you got back together with respondent,
what happened?

10
A. In the end, I finally gave in to Juliet’s demands that the
two (2) of us get married.

28. Q. How did your family react to your decision to get

married?

A. When I told my parents that I was getting married, both

of them were apprehensive. My mother felt that, at age twenty-
three (23), I was still too young to settle down. My younger
sister, Leslie, even opposed my decision, arguing that I should
marry for the right reasons, and not because Juliet was
pressuring me to do so by threatening to harm herself if I did
not.

29. Q. When and where did you marry respondent?

A. On 23 October 1997, Juliet and I got married in civil law

rites before the Honorable Balthasar J. Merculio, then the
Presiding Judge of Branch 56 of the Metropolitan Trial Court of
Malabon City. The wedding rites were conducted within the
premises of the Hall of Justice at Catmon, Malabon City.

30. Q. Do you possess any document evidencing the fact of your

marriage?

A. Yes, I do. I have a copy of our Marriage Certificate.

31. Q. Mr. Witness, I am showing you a certified true copy of a

Marriage Certificate 23 October 1997, and issued by the
National Statistics Office (NSO). Is this the same marriage
certificate that you were referring to?

A. Yes, it is.

Manifestation and Motion: Let it be noted on the

record that Petitioner is referring to a certified true
copy of a Marriage Certificate dated 23 October
1997, issued by the NSO, and previously identified,
authenticated and pre-marked during the course of
Pre-Trial as Exhibit “A.”

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 Petitioner attaches hereto a machine copy of the
abovementioned marriage certificate, which
petitioner warrants is a faithful reproduction of the
original, and make the same an integral part hereof,
subject to respondent comparing it with the original
and/or stipulating as to its authenticity, if so
warranted.

Petitioner requests this Honorable Court to make

permanent the pre-marking in the aforementioned
certificate of marriage.

32. Q. Mr. Witness, after you married respondent in civil law

rites, where did the two (2) of you live? Did you immediately
cohabit?

A. After our civil wedding. Juliet and I cohabited, initially

staying at the family home of my parents in Brgy. Galas, San
Rafael, Bulacan.

33. Q. Did you and respondent immediately consummate your

marriage? Did the two (2) of you engage in sexual intercourse?

A. Juliet and I did not consummate our marriage. While we

decided to live together after our civil wedding. Juliet insisted
that the two (2) of us defer sexual intercourse until after our
marriage was celebrated in Roman Catholic rites.

At the time, I did not think much of her refusal to have sexual
intercourse. And since we were set to have a church wedding
less than two (2) months later. I felt, at that time, that is was ok
for us to wait first.

34. Q. When and where did you marry respondent in Roman

Catholic rites?

A. On 13 December 1997, less than two (2) months after our

civil wedding, the Reverend Father Johann Sebastian celebrated
my marriage with Juliet in Roman Catholic rites at the Parish
and Diocesan Shrine of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (PDSSHJ),
Brgy. Cruz na Daan, San Rafael, Bulacan.

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35. Q. Do you possess any document evidencing the fact of your
marriage in Roman Catholic Rites?

A. Yes, I do. I have a copy of our Certificate of Marriage.

36. Q. Mr. Witness, I am showing you a certified copy of a

Certificate of Marriage dated of 19 May 2011, attesting to your
wedding to respondent on 13 December 1997, and issued by the
Rev. Fr. Mario L. Mendiola of the PDSSHJ. Is this the same
certificate of marriage that you were referring to?

A. Yes, it is.

Manifestation and Motion: Let it be noted on the

record that Petitioner is referring to a certifies true
copy Certificate of Marriage dated of 19 May 2011,
attesting to your wedding to respondent 13
December 1997, and issued by Rev, Fr. Mario L.
Menidola of the PDSSHJ, which was previously
identified, authenticated and pre-marked during
the course of Pre-Trial as Exhibit “B.”

Petitioner attaches hereto a machine copy of the

aforementioned certificate of marriage, which
petitioner, warrants is a faithful reproduction of the
original, and make the same an integral part hereof,
subject to respondent comparing it with the original
and/or stipulating as to its authenticity, if so
warranted.

Petitioner requests this Honorable Court to make

permanent the pre-marking in the aforementioned
certificate of marriage.

37. Q. After you and respondent were married in Roman

Catholic rites, did the two(2) of you finally consummate your
marriage through sexual intercourse?

A. Unfortunately, we did not consummate our marriage.

Juliet did not want me to have sexual intercourse with her.

38. Q. You mean to say that, even on your wedding night, you
and respondent did not have sexual intercourse?
13
 A. Yes, that is what I meant. Juliet refused to have sexual
intercourse with me.

39. Q. Do you mind telling us what happened during your

wedding night, if any?

A. On the evening after our church wedding, I attempted to

have sexual intercourse with Juliet, but she refused, claiming
fear and anxiety over the act. Juliet admitted to me that she
found the prospect of sexual intercourse disgusting, and
assumed that it would be physically painful.

On the other hand, I assured Juliet that I would be gentle with

her. I engaged her in prolonged foreplay in an effort to get her
physically relaxed and aroused. However, each time I
attempted to have actual sexual intercourse, she would refuse,
and would even violently push me away. She started crying in
bed.

40. Q. What happened during the next few days?

A. Days after the church wedding, I brought Juliet to a hotel

to put her at ease, and even resorted to using a special lubricant
to facilitate sexual intercourse --- to no avail. Respondent chose
to limit sexual activity with me to fellatio or oral sex.

41. Q. How did you react and/or feel about the refusal of
respondent to have sexual intercourse with you?

A. I was confused at first, then frustrated. After all, Juliet

was the one who pressured me to get married. Then, I became
very angry and resentful, and seriously contemplated leaving
Juliet.

42. Q. At the time, did you decide to leave respondent?

A. I really wanted to. But I was prevented from doing so for

fear of the resulting scandal from such an early separation, and
what it could do to my reputation. I lived in a small, very
intimate community, where I was well-known, considering that
I was working in my parents' general store in the public
market.

14
 I was also very concerned about what Juliet could possibly do if
I left her.

43. Q. So, what did you do, given that respondent, your wife,
refused to have sexual intercourse with you?

A. As I was very frustrated with Juliet for her refusal to

engage in sexual intercourse, I found it easy to cheat on her.
Less than a year after our church wedding, I engaged in extra-
marital relations with other women in order to satisfy my
sexual needs.

44. Q. How often did you cheat on respondent during the

course of your marriage?

A. Honestly, I have lost track of the number of times I

cheated on Juliet. Each and every time that she refused to have
sexual intercourse with me, I would leave the house
immediately or the next day, and pay visit to girls who wanted
to fool around with me.

45. Q. Mr. Witness, during the course of your marriage with

respondent, did you have any children?

A. I will be very blunt in answering this question: Not once,

during our cohabitation, did I successfully engage in sexual
intercourse with my wife. Because of this, it was impossible for
us to have any children. She denied me the opportunity to have
children with her. This embarrassed me. I could not even tell
my closest friends at first because I was concerned that they
would laugh at me.

And I wanted to have children. It reached a point when I

started researching about artificial insemination.

46. Q. Did you talk to respondent about seeking medical help?

Did you make any attempt to get counseling?

A. On several occasions during our marriage, with the help

of a close family friend, Lady Elizabeth Oxford, I persuaded
Juliet to consult with doctors to possibly cure her fear of
engaging in sexual intercourse. The doctors said that the

15
 respondent did not suffer from any physical incapacity to
engage in sexual intercourse, and that it was very likely that her
fear is attributable to psychological factors.

47. Q. Aside from the refusal of respondent to have sexual

intercourse with you, what else did you discover about her, if
any, during the course of your cohabitation?

A. We were living with my parents initially. But Juliet was

excessively withdrawn, aloof and unsociable towards my
parents, my sister and my cousins, who I am very close to. She
would often keep to our room, and did not make any effort to
encourage a working relationship with my parents.

In fact, when we were already living at her grandmother's

house, after my mother was diagnosed with kidney failure, not
once did Juliet visit my mother at home or in the hospital, nor
inquired about her well-being. In fact, when I proposed to her
that the two (2) of us move back with my parents in order to
directly watch over and take care of my mother, she picked a
fight with me and called me a “Mama's Boy” and told me that I
should go back to her womb. “Bumalik raw ako sa matris!”
Imagine that! My mother was very sick, and she said that!

48. Q. How was respondent as a housewife, irrespective of her

refusing not to have sexual intercourse with you?

A. To be honest, Juliet can be very sweet and caring from

time to time. During our marriage, she ran our household well,
although she had a tendency to be strict with maids. She
cooked for me, and it was good enough for me to invest in a
small canteen, which she eventually ran and managed.

49. Q. So, respondent made an effort to take good care of you?

A. Yes, she did try to take care of me. It was complex

relationship in a complex situation. Juliet could be sweet and
attentive, but she was also very paranoid and possessive,
particularly after she began suspecting that I was engaging in
extra-marital relations with other girls to satisfy my sexual
needs.

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50. Q. In what way was respondent paranoid and possessive?

A. For example, Juliet always wanted to know where I was.

She would call my friends and business acquaintances to
confirm my whereabouts. She read all my text messages and
regularly checked my caller log. She had a habit of initiating
public fights with me, and did not hesitate about nagging and
out rightly insulting me before family, friends, even strangers.

51. Q. Mr. Witness, this is a delicate question, and I want you to

be honest: Given what you have just relayed, did you ever get
frustrated with respondent enough to be violent?

A. I am a pretty laidback guy. I am not very confrontational.

In fact, every time Juliet and I fought, which was very often, my
usual reaction was to just leave, go out with my friends to calm
myself down.

However, I admit, regretfully, that on at least two (2) isolated

occasions, I was not able to restrain myself when Juliet was
picking a fight with me, and as a result, I physically pushed her
over, even restrained her by the neck.

When Juliet told my father this, he got so mad at me, and told
me that he was very disappointed in me. I cried after, out of
regret and frustration. I just did not know what to do.

52. Q. Prior to filing this Petition, how long did you cohabit with
respondent?

A. We cohabited for a period of at least ten (10) years, on and

off, before I decided to leave her. It was her attitude and lack of
concern for my mother's serious illness that did it for me. How
could I stay with a woman who not only did not treat me like a
man, but who also did not want me to take care of my mother?

53. Q. Prior to filing this Petition, how long have you been
separated from respondent?

A. We have been separated for more than four (4) years,

before I could save enough money necessary to initiate this
Petition.

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54. Q. Why did it take you that long? You said you ran a general
store at a public market. Money should not have been a
problem.

A. I wish that were the case. But like I mentioned, my

mother suffered from kidney failure. She had been hospitalized
and after she was discharged, she had to undergo regular
dialysis sessions at least twice a week. Those sessions are not
cheap, and I have to work extra hard to help out my parents
with their medical expenses. Their respective pensions from
being retired public school teachers are barely enough to meet
their needs.

I also have to save up money to pay for competent psychiatric

testing and treatment.

55. Q. So you met with a psychiatrist?

A. Yes, I consulted a psychiatrist, Dr. Verona Smith.

56. Q. Mr. Witness, I am showing to you a red stenographic

notebook. Do you remember this notebook?

A. Yes, it is the notebook that I used for one of my

psychiatric exercises. Dr. Smith required to me to write down
an uninhibited account of my relationship with Juliet, as well as
with other women.

Manifestation and Motion: let it be noted on the

record that Petitioner is referring to a red,
stenographic notebook, previously identified,
authenticated and pre-marked during the course of
Pre-Trial as Exhibit “N“, with succeeding lined
pages pre-marked as Exhibits “N-1“ to “N-20“.

Petitioner attaches hereto a machine copy of the

aforementioned stenographic spiral notebook, and
its succeeding lined pages, which petitioner
warrants as a faithful reproduction of the originals,
and to make the same integral parts hereof, subject
to respondent comparing them with the originals
and/or stipulating as to their authenticity, if so
warranted.
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 Petitioner requests this Honorable Court to make
permanent the pre-marking in the aforementioned
stenographic spiral notebook.

57. Q. One last question, Mr. Witness: During the course of your
marriage, did you and respondent accumulate any joint
properties?

A. As far as I know, during our marriage, Juliet and I did not

acquire properties, real or personal, or incur any debt.

IN WITNESS HEREOF, I hereunto affix my signature below

on this 28th day of May 2019 in Quezon City.

ROMEO H. MONTAGUE
Petitioner-Affiant

Submitted by:

Asdala, Jillian Fatima G.

Baran, Foena B.
Flauta, Jorel Andrew
Gabunilas, Rosario Audris E.
Li, Jonah R.
Ona, Zhaira Louise L.
Yasay, Joanna Andrea A.

LLB-3

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