CRISPIN AMIGO CHAN - COPRA DEALER
IBAJAY, AKLAN
August 10, 1991CERTIFICATION OF SEPARATION FROM EMPLOYMENT
To whom it may concern:
This is to certify that my employee, GREGORIO P. ROGELIO bearing SSS ID No. 07-0495213-7 who was first covered effective January, 1974 up to June 30, 1989 inclusive, is now officially separated from my employ effective the 1st of July, 1989.
Please be guided accordingly.
(SGD.) CRISPIN AMIGO CHAN
Proprietor
SSS ID No. 07-0595800-4
From said evidence, it is our considered view that there exists no employer-employee relationship between the parties effective July 1, 1989 up to the date of the filing of the instant complaint complainant was an employee of Wynne O. Lim. Hence, his claim for retirement should have been filed against the latter for he admitted that he was the employer of herein complainant in his sworn statement dated June 9, 1998.
Complainant's claim for retirement benefits against herein respondents under RA No. 7641 has been barred by prescription considering the fact that it partakes of the nature of a money claim which prescribed after the lapse of three years after its accrual.
The rest of the claims are also dismissed for the same accrued during complainant's employment with Wynne O. Lim.
WHEREFORE, PREMISES CONSIDERED, this case is hereby DISMISSED for lack of merit.
SO ORDERED. 15
WHEREFORE, premises considered, the Decision of the public respondent NLRC is hereby VACATED and SET ASIDE. This case is remanded to the Labor Arbiter for the proper computation of the retirement benefits of the petitioner based on Article 287 of the Labor Code, as amended, to be pegged at the minimum wage prevailing in Ibajay, Aklan as of March 17, 1997, and attorney's fees based on the same. Without costs.
SO ORDERED.
As to the factual issue, the petitioner's evidence consists of his own statements and those of his alleged co-worker from 1950 until 1997, Juanito Palomata, who unlike his former co-workers Domingo Guevarra and Ambrosio Señeres, did not disown the "Sinumpaang Salaysay" he executed, in corroboration of petitioner's allegations; and the Certification dated August 10, 1991 stating that petitioner was first placed under coverage of the SSS in January 1974 to June 30, 1989 and was separated from service effective July 1, 1989, a certification executed by respondent Crispin Amigo Chan which, petitioner maintains, was only intended for his application for retirement benefits with the SSS.
Private respondents' evidence, on the other hand, consisted of respondent Crispin Amigo Chan's counter statements as well as documentary evidence consisting of (1) Wayne Lim's Affidavit which petitioner acknowledged in his Reply dated July 11, 1998, par. 8, admitting to being the employer of petitioner from July 1, 1989 until the filing of the complaint; (2) Certification dated October 22, 1991 showing petitioner's employment with respondents to have been between January 3, 1977 until July 1, 1989; (3) Affidavits of Guevarra and Señeres disowning their signatures in the affidavits submitted in evidence by the petitioner; (4) SSS report executed by Wayne Lim of his initial list of employees as of July 1, 1989 which includes the petitioner. On appeal, the respondents further submitted documentary evidence showing that Wayne Lim registered his business name on July 11, 1989 and apparently went into business buying copra.
At this point, we should note the following factual discrepancies in the evidence on hand: First, the respondents issued certificates stating the commencement of petitioner's employment on different dates, i.e. January 1974 and January 1977, although the earlier date referred only to the period when petitioner was first placed under the coverage of the SSS, which need not necessarily refer to the commencement of his employment. Secondly, while respondent Crispin Amigo Chan denied having ever engaged in copra buying in Ibajay, the certificates he issued both dated in 1991 state otherwise, for he declared himself as a "copra dealer" with address in Ibajay. Then there is the statement of the petitioner that Wayne Lim was the respondents' manager in their branch office in Ibajay since 1984, a statement that respondents failed to disavow. Instead, respondents insisted on their non sequitur argument that they had never engaged in copra buying activities in Ibajay, and that Wayne Lim was in business all by himself in regard to such activity.
The denial on respondents' part of their copra buying activities in Ibajay begs the obvious question: What were petitioner and his witness Juanito Palomata then doing for respondents as laborers in Ibajay prior to July 1, 1989? Indeed, what did petitioner do for the respondents as the latter's laborer prior to July 1, 1989, which was different from what he did after said date? The records showed that he continued doing the same job, i.e. as laborer and trusted employee tasked with the responsibility of getting money from the Kalibo office of respondents which was used to buy copra and pay the employees' salaries. He did not only continue doing the same thing but he apparently did the same at or from the same place, i.e. the bodega in Ibajay, which his co-worker Palomata believed to belong to the respondent Masing & Sons. Since respondents admitted to employing petitioner from 1977 to 1989, we have to conclude that, indeed, the bodega in Ibajay was owned by respondents at least prior to July 1, 1989 since petitioner had consistently stated that he worked for the respondents continuously in their branch office in Ibajay under different managers and nowhere else.
We believe that the respondents' strongest evidence in regard to the alleged separation of petitioner from service effective July 1, 1989 would be the affidavit of Wayne Lim, owning to being the employer of petitioner since July 1, 1989 and the SSS report that he executed listing petitioner as one of his employees since said date. But in light of the incontrovertible physical reality that petitioner and his co-workers did go to work day in and day out for such a long period of time, doing the same thing and in the same place, without apparent discontinuity, except on paper, these documents cannot be taken at their face value. We note that Wayne Lim apparently inherited, at least on paper, ten (10) employees of respondent Crispin Amigo Chan, including petitioner, all on the same day, i.e. on July 1, 1989. We note, too, that while there exists an initial report of employees to the SSS by Wayne Lim, no other document apart from his affidavit and business registration was offered by respondents to bolster their contention, irrespective of the fact that Wayne Lim was not a party respondent. What were the circumstances underlying such alleged mass transfer of employment? Unfortunately, the evidence for the respondents does not provide us with ready answers. We could conclude that respondents sold their business in Ibajay and assets to Wayne Lim on July 1, 1989; however, as pointed out above, respondent Crispin Amigo Chan himself said that he was a "copra dealer" from Ibajay in August and October of 1991. Whether or not he was registered as a copra buyer is immaterial, given that he declared himself a "copra dealer" and had apparently engaged in the activity of buying copra, as shown precisely by the employment of petitioner and Palomata. If Wayne Lim, from being the respondents' manager in Ibajay became an independent businessman and took over the respondents' business in Ibajay along with all their employees, why did not the respondents' simply state that fact for the record? More importantly, why did the petitioner and Palomata continue believing that Wayne Lim was only the respondents' manager? Given the long employment of petitioner with the respondents, was it possible for him and his witness to make such mistake? We do not think so. In case of doubt, the doubt is resolved in favor of labor, in favor of the safety and decent living for the laborer as mandated by Article 1702 of the Civil Code. The reality of the petitioner's toil speaks louder than words. xxx 22
Article 287. Retirement. - Any employee may be retired upon reaching the retirement age established in the collective bargaining agreement or other applicable employment contract.
In case of retirement, the employee shall be entitled to receive such retirement benefits as he may have earned under existing laws and any collective bargaining agreement and other agreements; Provided, however, That an employee's retirement benefits under any collective bargaining and other agreements shall not be less than those provided herein.
In the absence of a retirement plan or agreement providing for retirement benefits of employees in the establishment, an employee upon reaching the age of sixty (60) years or more, but not beyond sixty-five (65) years which is hereby declared the compulsory retirement age, who has served at least five (5) years in the said establishment, may retire and shall be entitled to retirement pay equivalent to at least one-half (1/2) month salary for every year of service, a fraction of at least six (6) months being considered as one whole year.
Unless the parties provide for broader inclusions, the term one-half (1/2) month salary shall mean fifteen (15) days plus one-twelfth (1/12) of the 13th month pay and the cash equivalent of not more than five (5) days of service incentive leaves.
Retail, service and agricultural establishments or operations employing not more than ten (10) employees or workers are exempted from the coverage of this provision.
Violation of this provision is hereby declared unlawful and subject to the penal provisions provided under Article 288 of this Code.
Having reached the conclusion that petitioner was an employee of the respondents from 1950 to March 17, 1997, and considering his uncontroverted allegation that in the Ibajay branch office where he was assigned, respondents employed no less than 12 workers at said later date, thus affording private respondents no relief from the duty of providing retirement benefits to their employees, we see no reason why petitioner should not be entitled to the retirement benefits as provided for under Article 287 of the Labor Code, as amended. The beneficent provisions of said law, as applied in Oro Enterprises Inc. v. NLRC, is apart from the retirement benefits that can be claimed by a qualified employee under the social security law. Attorney's fees are also granted to the petitioner. But the monetary benefits claimed by petitioner cannot be granted on the basis of the evidence at hand. 26
Endnotes:
1 Rollo, pp. 111-121; penned by Associate Justice Renato C. Dacudao (retired), with Associate Justice Cancio C. Garcia (later Presiding Justice of the CA and a Member of the Court) and Associate Justice Danilo B. Pine (retired), concurring.
2 Approved on December 9, 1992 and effective on January 7, 1993.
3 CA rollo, p. 48.
4 Id., pp. 44-45.
5 Id.
6 Id., pp. 46-47.
7 Id., p. 35.
8 Id., p. 38.
9 Id., p. 36.
10 Id., p. 37.
11 Id., pp. 39-40.
12 Id., p. 51.
13 Id.
14 Id., p. 52.
15 Rollo, pp. 24-25.
16 Id., pp. 56-61.
17 Supra, note 1.
18 Lopez v. Bodega City, G.R. No. 155731, September 3, 2007, 532 SCRA 56, 64; Manila Water Company, Inc. v. Peña, G.R. No. 158255, July 8, 2004, 434 SCRA 53, 58-59.
19 Section 5, Rule 133, Rules of Court; People's Broasting (Bombo Radyo Phils., Inc.) v. Secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment, G.R. No. 179652, May 8, 2009, 587 SCRA 724, 753.
20 Opulencia Ice Plant and Storage v. NLRC, G.R. No. 98368, December 15, 1993, 228 SCRA 473, 478.
21 Lopez v. Bodega City, supra, p. 65; Manila Water Company, Inc. v. Pena, supra, p. 58; Tiu v. Pasaol, Sr., G.R. No. 139876, April 30, 2003, 402 SCRA 312, 319.
22 Rollo, pp.117-119.
23 Insular Life Assurance Co., Ltd. Employees Association-NATU v. Insular Life Assurance Co., Ltd., G.R. No.L-25291, March 10, 1977, 76 SCRA 50.
24 Martinez v. National Labor Relations Commission, G.R. No. 117495, May 29, 1997, 272 SCRA 793, 801; P.T. Cerna Corporation v. Court of Appeals, G.R. No. 91622, April 6, 1993, 221 SCRA 19, 25.
25 Jimenez v. National Labor Relations Commission, G.R. No. 116960, April 2, 1996, 256 SCRA 84, 89.
26 Rollo, p. 120.
27 Oro Enterprises, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Commission, G.R. No. 110861, November 14, 1994, 238 SCRA 105, 112.