MANUEL J.C. REYES, PETITIONER, VS. HON. LEONOR INES-LUCIANO, AS JUDGE OF THE JUVENILE AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS COURT, QUEZON CITY, COURT OF APPEALS AND CELIA ILUSTRE-REYES, RESPON…

This is a motion for reconsideration filed on April 26, 1979 by the private
respondent, Celia Ilustre-Reyes, asking that the
decision be modified by making the payment of the support pendente
lite of Four Thousand Pesos (P4,000.00) a month retroact to June 1976, on the following
grounds:

(1)  There is ample evidence that the businesses of
the petitioner, Manuel J. C. Reyes, can very easily bear the burden of support;

(2)  The petition for support pendente
lite is directed mainly on the private
respondent’s share in the conjugal partnership;

(3)  Full support may be taken from the private
respondent’s share of the conjugal properties;

(4)  The private respondent, Celia Ilustre-Reyes, has incurred obligations during the three
(3) year period that she was not given any actual support and she also has to
pay attorney’s fees;

(5)  The corporation, Development and Technology
Consultants, Inc., of which the petitioner is the controlling stockholder, in
addition to four (4) cars in its name, has acquired two (2) new Opel Record sedan cars, each worth One Hundred Twenty
Thousand Pesos (P120,000.00), and the petitioner lives
in an expensive condominium and maintains business offices in different
buildings in Makati and Manila; and

(6)  Finally, on April 20, 1979, the petitioner and his three (3) children
went abroad on a two-month pleasure trip, while the private respondent, Celia Ilustre-Reyes, lives in a difficult and penurious
situation, deeply in debt and caught in the web of high prices and current
inflation.

The petitioner has also filed a motion for reconsideration of the
decision on the grounds that (1) the trial court should be ordered to receive
evidence on the issue of whether or not the private respondent is entitled to
support pendente lite;
and (2) assuming, arguendo, that the private
respondent is entitled to support pendente lite, the amount of Four Thousand Pesos (P4,000.00) is not only excessive for the needs of private
respondent but beyond the means of the petitioner herein.

The Court has gone over
the different exhibits attached by the parties to their respective
motions.  The Development and Technology
Consultants, Inc. has multi-million construction projects with gross receipts
of several million pesos.

The petitioner cannot seriously complain that the amount of
support pendente lite
he is ordered to pay will ruin him.  He
has not denied the allegations of the private respondent that the Development
and Technology Consultants, Inc. has acquired two (2) new automobiles and that
the petitioner maintains expensive offices and resides in an expensive
condominium.  It is not also denied that
he and his three (3) children had recently traveled abroad for two (2) months.

The support pendente lite in the amount of Four Thousand Pesos (P4,000.00) is reasonable. 
Hence, the motion for reconsideration of the petitioner has no merit.

In resolving the motion for reconsideration of the private
respondent, Celia Ilustre-Reyes, the Court has taken
into consideration the fact that in view of the issuance of the restraining
order by the Court of Appeals she had not received any support at all until
this Court issued a resolution allowing her only One Thousand Pesos (P1,000.00)
a month.

Obviously, during the
period that she was not receiving any support she incurred debts.  She must also pay attorney’s fees.

Considering that whatever support the private respondent, Celia Ilustre-Reyes, might now be receiving will be deducted from
her share of the conjugal properties, the Court finds that under the equities
and circumstances of the case, the decision should be modified so as to make
the support pendente lite
of Four Thousand Pesos (P4,000.00) a month retroact to
November 1, 1977.

WHEREFORE, the decision promulgated on February 28, 1979 is hereby modified
in the sense that the support pendente lite at the rate of Four Thousand Pesos (P4,000.00) a month should commence from November 1, 1977.

SO ORDERED.

Teehankee, (Chairman), Makasiar, Guerrero, De Castro, and Melencio-Herrera, JJ., concur.