Source: http://lawlibrary.chanrobles.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=83804:56574&catid=1579&Itemid=566
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 08:01:30+00:00

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This Petition under Rule 45 of the Rules of Court seeks to annul and set aside the Court of Appeals (CA) Decision dated 27 September 2010 and the Resolution dated 11 March 2011 in CA-G.R. SP. No. 113095.1 In the assailed Decision and Resolution, the CA upheld the Order of the National Labor and Relations Commission (NLRC) First Division dismissing petitioner’s appeal for allegedly failing to post an appeal bond as required by the Labor Code. Petitioner had instead filed a motion to release the cash bond it posted in another NLRC case which had been decided with finality in its favor with a view to applying the bond to the appealed case before the NLRC First Division. Hence, the Court is now asked to rule whether petitioner had complied with the appeal bond requirement. If it had, its appeal before the NLRC First Division should be reinstated.
Private respondent essentially alleged in his complaint that he was an employee of petitioner LCMC assigned as a lead miner in its underground mine in Paco, Mankayan, Benguet. On January 4, 2008, private respondent reported for the 1st shift of work (11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.) and was assigned at 248-8M2, 750 Level of the mining area. At their workplace, private respondent did some barring down, installed five (5) rock bolt support, and drilled eight (8) blast holes for the mid-shift blast. They then had their meal break. When they went back to their workplace, they again barred down loose rocks and drilled eight (8) more blast holes for the last round of blast. While waiting for the time to ignite their round, one of his co-workers shouted to prepare the explosives for blasting, prompting private respondent to run to the adjacent panels and warn the other miners. Thereafter, he decided to take a bath and proceeded at [sic] the bathing station where four (4) of his co-workers were also present. Before he could join them, he heard a voice at his back and saw Security Guard (SG) Larry Bulwayan instructing his companion SG Dale Papsa-ao to frisk him. As private respondent was removing his boots, SG Bulwayan forcibly pulled his skullguard from his head causing it to fall down [sic] to the ground including its harness and his detergent soap which was inserted in the skullguard harness. A few minutes later, private respondent saw SG Bulwayan [pick] up a wrapped object at the bathing station and gave it to his companion. SGs Bulwayan and Papsa-ao invited the private respondent to go with them at the investigation office to answer questions regarding the wrapped object. He was then charged with “highgrading” or the act of concealing, possessing or unauthorized extraction of highgrade material/ore without proper authority. Private respondent vehemently denied the charge. Consequently, he was dismissed from his work.
SECTION 6. Bond. — In case the decision of the Labor Arbiter or the Regional Director involves a monetary award, an appeal by the employer may be perfected only upon the posting of a bond, which shall either be in the form of cash deposit or surety bond equivalent in amount to the monetary award, exclusive of damages and attorney’s fees.
We now turn to the main question of whether petitioner’s Consolidated Motion to release the cash bond it posted in a previous case, for application to the present case, constitutes compliance with the appeal bond requirement. While it is true that the procedure undertaken by petitioner is not provided under the Labor Code or in the NLRC Rules, we answer the question in the affirmative.
We reiterate our pronouncement in Araneta v. Rodas,22 where the Court said that when the law does not clearly provide a rule or norm for the tribunal to follow in deciding a question submitted, but leaves to the tribunal the discretion to determine the case in one way or another, the judge must decide the question in conformity with justice, reason and equity, in view of the circumstances of the case. Applying this doctrine, we rule that petitioner substantially complied with the mandatory requirement of posting an appeal bond for the reasons explained below.
Under the Rule VI, Section 6 of the 2005 NLRC Rules, “[a] cash or surety bond shall be valid and effective from the date of deposit or posting, until the case is finally decided, resolved or terminated, or the award satisfied.” Hence, it is clear that a bond is encumbered and bound to a case only for as long as 1) the case has not been finally decided, resolved or terminated; or 2) the award has not been satisfied. Therefore, once the appeal is finally decided and no award needs to be satisfied, the bond is automatically released. Since the money is now unencumbered, the employer who posted it should now have unrestricted access to the cash which he may now use as he pleases – as appeal bond in another case, for instance. This is what petitioner simply did.
Third, the cash bond in the amount of P401,610.84 posted in Dangiw Siggaao is more than enough to cover the appeal bond in the amount of P345,879.45 required in the present case.
Moreover, this Court has liberally applied the NLRC Rules and the Labor Code provisions on the posting of an appeal bond in exceptional cases. In Your Bus Lines v. NLRC,25 the Court excused the appellant’s failure to post a bond, because it relied on the notice of the decision. While the notice enumerated all the other requirements for perfecting an appeal, it did not include a bond in the list. In Blancaflor v. NLRC,26 the failure of the appellant therein to post a bond was partly caused by the labor arbiter’s failure to state the exact amount of monetary award due, which would have been the basis of the amount of the bond to be posted. In Cabalan Pastulan Negrito Labor Association v. NLRC,27 petitioner-appellant was an association of Negritos performing trash-sorting services in the American naval base in Subic Bay. The plea of the association that its appeal be given due course despite its non-posting of a bond, on account of its insolvency and poverty, was granted by this Court. In UERM-Memorial Medical Center v. NLRC,28 we allowed the appellant-employer to post a property bond in lieu of a cash or surety bond. The assailed judgment involved more than P17 million; thus, its execution could adversely affect the economic survival of the employer, which was a medical center.
If in the above-cited cases, the Court found exceptional circumstances that warranted an extraordinary exercise of its power to exempt a party from the rules on appeal bond, there is all the more reason in the present case to find that petitioner substantially complied with the requirement. We emphasize that in this case we are not even exempting petitioner from the rule, as in fact we are enforcing compliance with the posting of an appeal bond. We are simply liberally applying the rules on what constitutes compliance with the requirement, given the special circumstances surrounding the case as explained above.
Having complied with the appeal bond requirement, petitioner’s appeal before the NLRC must therefore be reinstated.
WHEREFORE, premises considered, the instant Rule 45 Petition is GRANTED. The Court of Appeals Decision dated 27 September 2010 and its Resolution dated 11 March 2011 in CA-G.R. SP. No. 113095, which dismissed petitioner’s Rule 65 Petition, are hereby REVERSED. Finally, the National Labor Relations Commission Resolutions dated 27 February 2009 and 27 November 2009 are SET ASIDE, and the appeal of petitioner before it is hereby REINSTATED.
Leonardo-De Castro, Bersamin, Villarama, Jr., and Reyes, JJ. concur.
9 Docketed as G.R. No. 179013, the unrelated case of Dangiw Siggaao involved a different employee who filed his Complaint for illegal dismissal against LCMC (docketed as NLRC Case No. RAB-CAR-05-0250-03) several years before the employee in the instant case filed his. In any case, the Dangiw Siggaao Complaint was decided by the labor arbiter in favor of the complainants. Consequently LCMC filed an appeal to the NLRC (docketed as NLRC NCR CA No. 03767-04) which in a Decision dated 18 May 2005, reversed the labor arbiter’s Decision. The CA (where the appeal was docketed as CA-GR SP No. 91681) affirmed the NLRC in CA Decision dated 30 March 2007. The CA Decision was brought to this Court through a Petition for Review on Certiorari which the Court dismissed on technical grounds in a Resolution dated 3 October 2007. See Consolidated Motion for Release of Cash Bond dated 8 December 2008 and Entry of Judgment, Dangiw Siggaao v. LCMC, dated 28 April 2008 and sent to the parties on 10 July 2008, Annex “O” of the instant Petition; rollo, pp.151-156.
20BPI Family Savings Bank, Inc., v. Pryce Gases, Inc., G.R. No. 188365, 29 June 2011, 653 SCRA 42, 51; National Power Corporation v. Spouses Laohoo, G.R. No. 151973, 23 July 2009, 593 SCRA 564; Philux, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Commission, G.R. No. 151854, 3 September 2008, 564 SCRA 21, 33; Cu-unjieng v. Court of Appeals, 515 Phil. 568 (2006); Stolt-Nielsen Services, Inc. v. NLRC, 513 Phil. 642 (2005); Producers Bank of the Philippines v. Court of Appeals, 430 Phil 812 (2002); Villanueva v. Court of Appeals, G.R. No. 99357, 27 January 1992, 205 SCRA 537; Trans International v. Court of Appeals, 348 Phil. 830 (1998); Acme Shoe, Rubber & Plastic Corporation v. Court of Appeals, 329 Phil. 531 (1996); and Ozaeta v. Court of Appeals, 259 Phil. 428 (1989).
24Accessories Specialist, Inc. v. Alabanza, 581 Phil. 517 (2008), Roos Industrial Construction, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Commission, 567 Phil. 631 (2008), Borja Estate v. Ballad, 498 Phil. 694 (2005).

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