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| `Enormous Fire Lex TUPAS Fire is hot. Fire burns. Fire destroys. Fire consumes. Fire kills. Fire brings fear. Fire has various uses. Some helpful but some unanticipated and brings tears. Last Jan. 22, 2012 when Ilonggos, local and foreign tourists were busy enjoying the best tourism event in the Philippines, the Iloilo Dinagyang Festival, cries of help and of apparent helplessness filled the four barangays in the City Proper District of Iloilo City as a huge fire was destroying everything in its way. Destruction is always untimely but this was literally huge as it victimized five hundred families and it happened during the time that was supposed to be one of the happiest in Iloilo City since it was Dinagyang Festival and also the eve of the Chinese New Year. How can we be as happy when we know there are thousands of Ilonggos who felt hopeless and lost almost everything they had. What we are much thankful for is that Ilonggos and friends came immediately to lend a helping hand to the people who needed it the most. Let us all respond to the cry for help and to the call of Iloilo City Mayor Jed for mobilization and assistance to the victims. Let us be a blessing to them. The victims are now staying in three public schools near the Tanza Church. They are in need of food, water, "banig", kitchen utensils, eating utensils, water containers for bathing and for drinking, clothes and other basic necessities. For the people who would like to help and be a blessing to the victims, we will appreciate all the help. You can send it to your favorite media outlets, to the schools where the evacuees are temporarily staying, to the CSWDO Main office in Molo and to other places that deliver the goods we give. I suggest we share in kind. Helplessness and hopelessness will only happen if we allow it. Let us help the victims rise up and let us make sure that they know there is always hope and there is a God. Let us be the water that will cease the flames and the fire. UGYON Iloilo! Sa pagbuligay, wala sang bagay nga di masarangan kag tanan nga pagtilaw atun malampasan kag maging madinalag-on sa kabuhi. | |
| High expectations Ana Marie PAMINTUAN In terms of com-petence in governance, presidential candidate Noynoy Aquino set low expectations. But from the moment he decided to replace Mar Roxas as standard-bearer of the Liberal Party, Noynoy Aquino set the bar high for exemplary behavior among public servants. The people are his boss, he likes to say, and he has vowed to lead by example. With that promise, the public expectation is that his alter egos in the Cabinet, if not the entire bureaucracy, will follow his lead. We know the perils of high expectations: they can lead to deep disappointments. And the smallest infractions can draw flak. Having previously tooled around in a BMW with no one raising a fuss, Noynoy the President looked genuinely baffled by the furor stirred up by his acquisition of a pre-owned Porsche. He’s showing the same befuddlement over the flak generated by reports about one of his aides being caught in the act of buying P2,000 worth of pirated DVDs. The Philippines is on a watch list of countries that aren’t doing enough to enforce intellectual property rights. Some security officials have also voiced suspicion that earnings from pirated movies and music are funneled to terrorist organizations. But despite regular raids on known havens of pirated DVDs, and despite those warnings about being in trouble with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation if caught selling, buying or watching pirated stuff, film and music pirates continue to enjoy a booming business in this country. When the price of an original-quality blu-ray pirated DVD is less than a tenth of the genuine article, who will buy the original copy in this country? Not the majority of Pinoys. For reasons cited earlier in this article, however, P-Noy and his alter egos are supposed to set an example to the majority in being law-abiding and responsible citizens. So Ronald Llamas can cry himself hoarse about the hypocrisy of his critics, but his critics aren’t the adviser for political affairs, with Cabinet rank, of the President who has promised to be different, to lead the nation along the straight path or daang matuwid. * * * Llamas could have simply sent his bodyguards to the DVD dealer along Congressional Avenue in Quezon City. But he’s probably more careful these days about the tasks he assigns to his security escorts. The last time two of them attracted media attention, they were found with an AK-47 and four other guns in his Mitsubishi Montero when the vehicle figured in a traffic accident while Llamas was in Switzerland in October. The AK-47, licensed to Llamas, was taken out of the vehicle before investigators arrived. Only the licensed owner is allowed to carry the gun, especially outside one’s residence, so that was a case of illegal possession. And taking it out of the Montero constituted tampering with evidence in a case of illegal gun possession. Llamas was abroad so he was off the hook, but he got all the flak. P-Noy reportedly ribbed him about the incident. We don’t know what happened to the bodyguards, or to the person who took the AK-47 out of the vehicle; their defenders hoped the incident would simply be written off as a case of carelessness and be forgotten. But Llamas seems to have a knack for attracting controversy. Recently he was rumored to be negotiating for a government position for exiled Communist Party founder Jose Ma. Sison. Just days after that DVD story, Llamas was again in the news. Yesterday he was identified in one news report as the one who allegedly asked a go-between to persuade retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Serafin Cuevas to withdraw as head of the defense team in the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona. In exchange, Magtanggol Gatdula supposedly would get some leniency in the kidnapping and extortion case that led to his sacking as chief of the National Bureau of Investigation. Like the supposed go-between, both Cuevas and Gatdula belong to the Iglesia Ni Cristo. Llamas denied the story. Llamas’ defenders have decried what they believe is an ongoing demolition job against him. But Llamas himself could be fueling some of the nasty speculation. Independent observers who have encountered Llamas in the past months have marveled that he must be the one who’s actually running the government, because that’s the impression he gives when discussing his role as presidential adviser. If P-Noy always takes his advice, then Llamas must be doing an excellent job. And P-Noy can’t be expected to replace his favorite adviser over something that he probably believes every Filipino with a DVD player engages in, regardless of those FBI warnings. People still remember the President firing the nation’s chief weather forecaster, who had been with the weather bureau throughout his professional life, for an erroneous forecast that led to P-Noy being awakened by a storm in the middle of the night. Officials have bowed out of the Cabinet in the past year. Since the reasons for their departure were vague, the impression was that they left simply because P-Noy had grown tired of their faces. For officials perceived to be close to him, P-Noy has shown greater forbearance. This has given the impression that like his predecessors, P-Noy has his own privileged cabal whose members, in his eyes, can do no wrong. This is the impression in the case of Llamas. P-Noy should decide if it is an impression that he wants sustained along the daang matuwid. | |
| Voluntary act Rex C. CASIPLE, Ph.D. If there is volun-tary resignation and waiver or quitclaim, there can be no illegal dismissal. This is illustrated in this case of Tessie. Tessie was a flight attendant of a Mideast airline company (Saudia) having been hired on May 13, 1986. During the course of her employment she was assigned to work at the Manila Office although the nature of her work entailed regular flights from Manila to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and back. By virtue of a Memorandum from Saudia’s head office in Jeddah, Tessie was transferred from Manila to Jeddah together with ten other flight attendants, effective Sept. 1, 2004. On Sept. 7, 2004 however, after only one week in Jeddah, Tessie submitted a handwritten resignation letter in a Saudia form expressing her gratitude for the support which Saudia had given her for her 18 years of service. Then on Oct. 28, 2004, Tessie executed and signed an Undertaking similar to that of a Receipt, Release and Quitclaim wherein she acknowledged that she received a sum of money as "full and complete end of service award with final settlement and that she had no further claims whatsoever against Saudi Arabian Airlines". After almost one year however, or on July 20, 2005, Tessie filed with the NLRC a complaint for reinstatement and payment of full back-wages; moral, exemplary and actual damages; and attorney’s fees. Tessie claimed that her resignation was not voluntary. She narrated that she wrote her resignation letter based on a form prepared by Saudia which even reminded her that the same was a better option than termination that would only tarnish her record of service. She also claimed that their transfer to Jeddah was a prelude to their termination since they were all between 39 and 40 years of age already. On Aug. 31, 2006, the Labor Arbiter (LA) rendered a decision in favor of Tessie and two other co-flight attendants who also subsequently filed similar complaints. The LA declared that Tessie, together with her co-complainants, were illegally dismissed and ordered Saudia to pay them full back-wages from their illegal dismissal until finality of decision, separation pay of one month for every year of service plus 10 percent attorney’s fees. On appeal by Saudia, the NLRC reversed and set aside the LA decision and issued a new one finding it not guilty of illegal dismissal. The NLRC ruled that Tessie and her companions voluntarily resigned from employment as shown by their resignation letters and undertaking which comprise substantial proof of their voluntary resignation. This was sustained by the Court of Appeals (CA) on appeal by Tessie who was the only one who appealed. Were the NLRC and the CA correct? Yes. Resignation is the voluntary act of an employee who believes that personal reasons cannot be sacrificed in favor of the exigency of the service leaving him (her) no other choice but to be disassociated from service. It is a formal pronouncement of the intention to relinquish the office accompanied by overt acts of relinquishment before and after the resignation. In this case, Tessie tendered her resignation letter a week after her transfer to Jeddah. In said letter she expressed her appreciation and gratitude to Saudia. These expressions negate the notion that she was forced to resign. Besides, her resignation letter was in handwriting and was in English, a language she is conversant in. Additionally instead of immediately filing a complaint for illegal dismissal, she executed an undertaking wherein she declared receipt of her full and complete end of service award with final settlement. What is more, she waited for ten months from her separation before filing a complaint. Under the circumstances, it cannot be said that she was forced or coerced and intimidated into signing the said letter and undertaking. Tessie is no ordinary employee who may not be able to completely comprehend and realize the consequences of her acts. She is an educated person. It is highly improbable that in her long years in the profession and her educational attainment, she could be tricked into doing something she does not intend to do. Besides, she did not adduce any competent evidence to show that intimidation vitiated her consent, particularly the following: (1) that there were threats to cause her to consent; (2) that the threatened act is unjust or unlawful; (3) that the threat is real and serious; and (4) that it produces a well grounded fear that the person threatening has the necessary means and ability to inflict it (Bilbao vs. Saudi Arabian Airlines, G.R. 183915, December 14, 2011). Note: Books containing compilation of my articles on Labor Law and Criminal Law (Vols. I and II) are now available. Call tel. 7249445. * * * E-mail: jcson@pldtdsl.net | |
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