The Supreme Court in Bohol Wisdom School vs. Mabao, G.R. No. 252124, 23 July 2024, held that premarital sexual relations between two single persons resulting in pregnancy out of wedlock cannot be considered disgraceful or immoral when viewed against prevailing norms of conduct, which is public and secular, not religious. The case involves a teacher who was suspended from work for getting pregnant with her boyfriend out of wedlock. According to the Court, even if a particular act does not conform to the traditional moral views of a sectarian institution, it is insufficient to qualify such act as immoral unless it likewise does not conform to public and secular standards. As declared by the Court: “Sexual intercourse between two consenting adults who have no legal impediment to marry, like respondent and her boyfriend, is not deemed as immoral. No law proscribes such, and said conduct does not contravene any fundamental state policy enshrined in the Constitution.”
In declaring the suspension illegal, the Court declared that the suspension must be reasonable to muster the constitutional requirement of substantive due process of law – it must be based on just or authorized causes enumerated in the Labor Code; the imposition of the school policy of getting legally married before or after pregnancy as a pre-requisite of employment or continued employment is not conducive with the general standards of morality and thus will not qualify as one of just causes for suspending, or dismissing an employee based on Article 297 of the Labor Code.
