FIRST DIVISION
G.R. No. 169158, July 01, 2015
PENTAGON INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING SERVICES, INC., Petitioner, v. THE COURT OF APPEALS, FILOMENO V. MADRIO, LUISITO G. RUBIANO, JDA INTER-PHIL. MARITIME SERVICES CORPORATION, Respondents.
D E C I S I O N
BERSAMIN, J.:
We review the decision promulgated on May 27, 2005,1 whereby the Court of Appeals (CA) annulled and set aside the resolutions dated June 30, 2003 and December 14, 2004 of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC)2 declaring respondent JDA Inter-Phil Maritime Services (JDA Inter-Phil) as the manning agency of Baleen Marine Pte. Ltd. (Baleen Marine) liable to pay respondents Filomeno V. Madrio and Luisito G. Rubiano the total amount of US$31,254.65 or its peso equivalent at the time of payment.
THE FOREGOING CONSIDERED, the Resolutions of public respondent NLRC, dated June 30, 2003 and December 14, 2004 are REVERSED and SET ASIDE.14
A. THE COURT OF APPEALS ERRED IN ABSOLVING PRIVATE RESPONDENT JDA OF THE LIABILITIES NOTWITHSTANDING THE AGREEMENT DATED OCTOBER 9, 1998.Pentagon assails the CA's overturning of the congruent findings of the Labor Arbiter and the NLRC to the effect that it could not be held solidarily liable with Baleen Marine for the money claims and other benefits of Madrio and Rubiano, insisting that the minutes of the October 9, 1998 meeting partook of the nature of the agreement required by law to effectively transfer the agency and the corresponding liability to JDA Inter-Phil.
B. THE COURT OF APPEALS REFUSED TO RECOGNIZE THE APPARENT BAD FAITH OF PRIVATE RESPONDENT JDA WHEN IT DELIBERATELY AND MALICIOUSLY REFUSED TO COMPLY WITH THE ACCREDITATION REQUIREMENTS.
C. THE COURT OF APPEALS IGNORED THE LEGAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE AGREEMENT DATED OCTOBER 9, 1998.15
Section 2. Requirements for Accreditation. An agency applying for the accreditation of its principals or projects shall submit the following:LawlibraryofCRAlawA local manning agency seeking accreditation of its foreign principal is mandated to submit the requirements listed under Section 2, supra. The use of the imperative word shall in the provision has the invariable significance to impose the enforcement of an obligation especially where public interest is involved. While the list is not exhaustive, the POEA identified the foremost requisite to be the authenticated special power of attorney and manning agreement. This identification is primarily due to the onerous responsibility assumed by the manning agency under Section 10 of the Migrant Workers' Act of 1995, to wit:LawlibraryofCRAlaw
ChanRoblesVirtualawlibraryx x x xSection 3 Verification or Authentication of Documents. Whenever required and determined by the Secretary, verification or authentication of documents for accreditation of principals or projects shall be undertaken by the following:LawlibraryofCRAlaw
b. For a Manning Agency for its Principals
(1) Authenticated special power of attorney and manning agreement;
(2) Crew complement and wages;
(3) List of vessels and their particulars; and
(4) Other documents which the Administration may find necessary.
ChanRoblesVirtualawlibraryx x x xSection 8. Approval and Validity of Accreditation. The Administration shall issue to the agency an accreditation certificate for its principal or project after approval of the accreditation request.
b. Authentication of documents at the site of employment may be undertaken by the appropriate official of any of the designated Ministries/Office of the Host countries.
Requirements for accreditation shall not be authenticated if basic documents are signed by the authorized officials of both the hiring company and its local agent in the presence of any member of the POEA Directorate or duly designated officers of the Administration.
x x x x
Full accreditation shall be valid for a maximum period of two (2) years from date of issuance, subject to renewal.
Provisional accreditation may be granted for a period of ninety (90) days for a principal or a project that meets the accreditation requirements substantially. (Emphasis supplied)
SEC. 10. MONEY CLAIMS. - x x xThe law clearly mandates that the special power of attorney and manning agreement should be authenticated, save only when the authorized officials of both the principal or hiring company and its local agent signed the document in the presence of any member of the POEA Directorate or duly designated officers of the POEA.16redarclaw
The liability of the principal/employer and the recruitment/placement agency for any and all claims under this section shall be joint and several. This provision shall be incorporated in the contract for overseas employment and shall be a condition precedent for its approval. The performance bond to be filed by the recruitment/placement agency, as provided by law, shall be answerable for all money claims or damages that may be awarded to the workers. If the recruitment/placement agency is a juridical being, the corporate officers and directors and partners as the case may be, shall themselves be jointly and solidarily liable with the corporation or partnership for the aforesaid claims and damages.
Such liabilities shall continue during the entire period or duration of the employment contract and shall not be affected by any substitution, amendment or modification made locally or in a foreign country of the said contract.
x x x x
Section 6. Transfer of Accreditation. The accreditation of a principal may be transferred to another agency provided that transfer shall not involve any diminution of wages and benefits of workersThe foregoing rules are clear to the effect that before a transfer of accreditation can be effected, the transferee agency should likewise have to comply with the requirements for accreditation contained in Section 2, supra. The POEA can act on the transfer of accreditation only after all the requirements shall have been submitted.
The transferee agency in these instances shall comply with the requirements for accreditation and shall assume full and complete responsibility to all contractual obligations of the principals to its workers originally recruited and processed by the former agency.
Prior to the transfer of accreditation, the Administration shall notify the previous agency and principal of such application.
Section 7. Actions on Applications for Accreditation of Projects Whose Contracting Partners or Principals Have Outstanding Obligations. Applications for the transfer of accreditation of principals or projects shall be acted by the Administration upon submission of all requirements by the new transferee agency.
x x x x (Emphasis supplied)
x x x Joint and solidary liability is meant to assure aggrieved workers of immediate and sufficient payment of what is due them. The fact that petitioner and its principal have already terminated their agency agreement does not relieve the former of its liability. The reason for this ruling was given by this Court in Catan vs. National Labor Relations Commission, which we reproduce in part as follows:LawlibraryofCRAlawAlthough JDA Inter-Phil undertook in the meeting of October 1, 1998 to assume the responsibility as the local agent to Baleen Marine, the actual transfer of the accreditation would not be completed without JDA Inter-Phil's compliance with the requirements under the aforementioned rules. What actually happened between the time the meeting took place and the eventual withdrawal of the application by the JDA Inter-Phil remained to be mere conjecture. Nevertheless, Madrio and Rubiano should not be prejudiced by any purported transfer of accreditation or agreement that they were not privy to. For sure, Pentagon remained under the law the only recognized manning agent of Baleen Marine.
ChanRoblesVirtualawlibraryThis must be so, because the obligations covenanted in the [manning] agreement between the local agent and its foreign principal are not coterminous with the term of such agreement so that if either or both of the parties decide to end the agreement, the responsibilities of such parties towards the contracted employees under the agreement do not at all end, but the same extends up to and until the expiration of the, employment contracts of the employees recruited and employed pursuant to the said recruitment agreement. Otherwise, this will render nugatory the very purpose for which the law governing the employment of workers for foreign jobs abroad was enacted.
Endnotes:
1 Rollo, pp. 65-80, penned by Associate Justice Danilo B. Pine (retired), and concurred in by Associate Justice Rodrigo V. Cosico (retired), and Associate Justice Arcangelita Romilla-Lontok (retired).
2 Id. at 285-289 and 71, respectively.
3 Id. at 35.
4 Id. at 66.
5 Id.
6 Id.
7 Id. at 45-46.
8 Id. at 46.
9 Id. at 267-274.
10 Id. at 272.
11 Id. at 71.
12 Id. at 321-325.
13 Supra note I.
14 Supra note I, at 79.
15Rollo, p. 47.
16 Section 3, Rule I, Book Ill of the Rules and Regulations Governing Overseas Employment.
17 Art 1356. Contracts shall be obligatory, in whatever form they may have been entered into, provided all the essential requisites for their validity are present. However, when the law requires that a contract be in some form in order that it may be valid or enforceable, or that a contract be proved in a certain way, that requirement is absolute and indispensable. In such cases, the right of the parties stated in the following article cannot be exercised. (1278a)
x x x x
Art. 1358. The following must appear in a public document:LawlibraryofCRAlaw
x x x x
(3) The power to administer property, or any other power which has for its object an act appearing or which should appear in a public document, or should prejudice a third person;
x x x x (R.A. 386, An Act To Ordain And Institute The Civil Code of the Philippines)
18Skippers United Pacific, Inc. v. Maguad, G.R. No. 166363, August 15, 2006, 498 SCRA 639, 669.
19 G.R. No. 138193, March 5, 2003, 398 SCRA 606, 616-617.