Azuela vs CA  There was an incomplete attempt to comply with this requisite, a space having been
April 12, 2006 | J. Tinga allotted for the insertion of the number of pages in the attestation clause. Yet the blank
A will whose attestation clause does not contain the number of pages on which the will is written
is fatally defective. A will whose attestation clause is not signed by the instrumental witnesses
is fatally defective. And perhaps most importantly, a will which does not contain an
acknowledgment, but a mere jurat, is fatally defective. Any one of these defects is sufficient to
deny probate. A notarial will with all three defects is just aching for judicial rejection.
 Felix Azuela sought to admit to probate the notarial will of Eugenia E. Igsolo, which was
notarized on June 10, 1981.
o Azuela is the son of the cousin of the decedent.
 The probate petition adverted to 2 heirs, legates and devises  petitioner Azuela and one
Irene Lynn Igsolo who was alleged to have resided abroad.
o Azuela prayed that the will be allowed and that the letters testamentary be issued
to the designated executor, Vart Prague.
 The will consists of 2 pages and written in Filipino. The 3 named witnesses to the will affixed
their signatures on the left-hand margin of both pages of the will, but not at the bottom of
the attestation clause.
 Azuela’s petition was opposed by Geralda Aida Castillo, ), who represented herself as the
attorney-in-fact of "the 12 legitimate heirs" of the decedent.
o She claimed that the will is a forgery, and that the true purpose of its emergence
was so it could be utilized as a defense in several court cases filed by oppositor
against petitioner, particularly for forcible entry and usurpation of real property, all
centering on petitioner’s right to occupy the properties of the decedent.
o Decedent was the widow of Bonifacio Igsolo, who died in 1965, and the mother of
a legitimate child, Asuncion E. Igsolo, who predeceased her mother by three (3)
months.
o She also claimed that the will was not executed and attested to in accordance with
law.
 Decedent’s signature did not appear on the second page of the will, and
the will was not properly acknowledged.
 RTC: Admitted the will to probate
o It took into account the testimony of the three (3) witnesses to the will, Quirino
Agrava, Lamberto Leano, and Juanito Estrada.
o "the modern tendency in respect to the formalities in the execution of a will x x x
with the end in view of giving the testator more freedom in expressing his last
wishes;" the liberalization of the interpretation of the law on the formal
requirements of a will with the end in view of giving the testator more freedom in
expressing his last wishes, this Court is persuaded to rule that the will in question
is authentic and had been executed by the testatrix in accordance with law.
 CA: (An appeal was filed by Ernesto Castillo, who had substituted his deceased mother-in-
law); Reversed the RTC and ordered the dismissal of the petition for probate
o Attestation clause failed to state the number of pages used in the will, thus
rendering the will void and undeserving of probate.
 Hence this present petition.
o Petition contends that the the requirement under Article 805 of the Civil Code that
"the number of pages used in a notarial will be stated in the attestation clause" is
merely directory, rather than mandatory, and thus susceptible to what he termed
as "the substantial compliance rule."
W/N THE WILL SHOULD BE ADMITTED TO PROBATE – No.
 An examination of the will itself reveals several deficiencies.
1. The attestation clause fails to state the number of pages of the will.
was never filled in; hence, the requisite was left uncomplied with.
2. Attestation clause was not signed by instrumental witnesses
3. Failed to have the will acknowledged before a notary public by the testator and
witnesses
1. The attestation clause fails to state the number of pages of the will.
 The purpose of requiring the number of sheets to be stated in the attestation clause is
obvious; the document might easily be so prepared that the removal of a sheet would
completely change the testamentary dispositions of the will and in the absence of a
statement of the total number of sheets such removal might be effected by taking out
the sheet and changing the numbers at the top of the following sheets or pages.
 In the case of In re Will of Andrada, the attestation clause of the will failed to state the number
of sheets or pages used. This consideration alone was sufficient for the Court to declare upon
the point that the defect pointed out in the attesting clause is fatal."
 While the Court is not impervious to its decisions in Singson v. Florentino and Tabaoda vs.
Rosal, to the effect that a will may still be valid even if the attestation does not contain the
number of pages used upon which the Will is written, said cases are not in the case at hand
o In Singson, although the attestation in the subject Will did not state the number of pages
used in the will, however, the same was found in the last part of the body
o In Tabaoda, the notarial acknowledgement in the Will states the number of pages used
o In the case at hand, the number of pages used in the will is not stated in any part of the
Will. The will does not even contain any notarial acknowledgment wherein the number of
pages of the will should be stated.
 While the Civil Code Commission stated that "the underlying and fundamental objective
permeating the provisions on the [law] on [wills] in this project consists in the [liberalization]
of the manner of their execution with the end in view of giving the testator more [freedom] in
[expressing] his last wishes, it also stated a qualification in the very same paragraph: "but
with sufficient safeguards and restrictions to prevent the commission of fraud and the
exercise of undue and improper pressure and influence upon the testator."
o Thus, the rule must be limited to disregarding those defects that can be supplied by an
examination of the will itself: whether all the pages are consecutively numbered; whether
the signatures appear in each and every page; whether the subscribing witnesses are
three or the will was notarized. All these are facts that the will itself can reveal, and defects
or even omissions concerning them in the attestation clause can be safely
disregarded. But the total number of pages, and whether all persons required to sign
did so in the presence of each other must substantially appear in the attestation
clause, being the only check against perjury in the probate proceedings.
 Thus, Following Caneda, there is substantial compliance with this requirement if the will
states elsewhere in it how many pages it is comprised of, as was the situation
in Singson and Taboada.
 However, in this case, there could have been no substantial compliance with the
requirements under Article 805 since there is no statement in the attestation clause or
anywhere in the will itself as to the number of pages which comprise the will.
2. The attestation clause was not signed by the instrumental witnesses.
 While the signatures of the instrumental witnesses appear on the left-hand margin of the will,
they do not appear at the bottom of the attestation clause which after all consists of their
averments before the notary public.
 The attestation clause is "a memorandum of the facts attending the execution of the will"
required by law to be made by the attesting witnesses, and it must necessarily bear their
signatures. An unsigned attestation clause cannot be considered as an act of the
witnesses, since the omission of their signatures at the bottom thereof negatives their
participation. (Cagro vs Cagro)
 If an attestation clause not signed by the three witnesses at the bottom thereof, be admitted
as sufficient, it would be easy to add such clause to a will on a subsequent occasion and in
the absence of the testator and any or all of the witnesses.
 The Court today reiterates the continued efficacy of Cagro. Article 805 particularly
segregates the requirement that the instrumental witnesses sign each page of the will, from
the requisite that the will be "attested and subscribed by [the instrumental witnesses]."
o The signatures on the left-hand corner of every page signify, among others, that
the witnesses are aware that the page they are signing forms part of the will.
o The signatures to the attestation clause establish that the witnesses are referring
to the statements contained in the attestation clause itself
 The Court may be more charitably disposed had the witnesses in this case signed the
attestation clause itself, but not the left-hand margin of the page containing such clause.
o It is the attestation clause which contains the utterances reduced into writing of the
testamentary witnesses themselves. It is the witnesses, and not the testator,
who are required under Article 805 to state the number of pages used upon
which the will is written; the fact that the testator had signed the will and
every page thereof; and that they witnessed and signed the will and all the
pages thereof in the presence of the testator and of one another. The only
proof in the will that the witnesses have stated these elemental facts would be their
signatures on the attestation clause.

3. Failed to have the will acknowledged before a notary public by the testator and
witnesses
 The non-observance of Article 806 in this case is equally as critical as the other cited flaws
in compliance with Article 805, and should be treated as of equivalent import.
 In lieu of an acknowledgment, the notary public, Petronio Y. Bautista, wrote "Nilagdaan ko at
ninotario ko ngayong 10 ng Hunyo 10 (sic), 1981 dito sa Lungsod ng Maynila."
o By no manner of contemplation can those words be construed as an
acknowledgment.
 It might be possible to construe the averment as a jurat, even though it does not hew to the
usual language thereof. A jurat is that part of an affidavit where the notary certifies that before
him/her, the document was subscribed and sworn to by the executor. Yet even if we consider
what was affixed by the notary public as a jurat, the will would nonetheless remain invalid,
as the express requirement of Article 806 is that the will be "acknowledged", and not
merely subscribed and sworn to