Business Mirror
September 12, 2011
By Joel San Juan
THE Court of Appeals has revived the bid of flag carrier Philippine Airlines to collect more than P730 million in damages from the Airline Pilots Association of the Philippines (Alpap) and its former officers who participated in a strike in 1998 which paralyzed its international and domestic operations.
In a 26-page decision written by Associate Justice Ramon Cruz, the CA’s Thirteenth Division modified the ruling issued by the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) on February 26, 2010, which dismissed the complaint for damages filed by PAL owing to lack of jurisdiction and prescription.
While the NLRC was correct in holding that the jurisdiction over PAL’s claim for damages arising from the illegal strike belongs to the civil courts, the CA said it gravely abused its direction in declaring that PAL’s complaint had already prescribed because of its failure to file the same within the three-year prescriptive period.
The CA gave credence to the argument of PAL that it could only file a complaint for damages arising from the illegality of the Alpap strike after the finality of the Supreme Court’s decision declaring the June 1998 Alpap strike as illegal, not before.
PAL explained that it is because the complaint is based on the illegality of the strike staged by Alpap and its officers and members.
The appellate court agreed with PAL that until the issue pertaining to the legality of the strike is finally settled, the filing of the suit for damages is premature and it will be considered a “groundless suit.”
“The Supreme Court decision resolving the illegality of the strike attained finality only on August 29, 2002. It was only then that private respondents’ act of abandoning their aircraft had been declared illegal and hence, they could already be held culpable for causing injury to petitioner’s business, assuming such could be proven by the petitioner,” the CA said.
“Stated differently, petitioner’s cause of action only accrued upon finality of the Supreme Court decision declaring private respondents’ strike to be illegal,” it added.
Concurring with the ruling were Associate Justices Jose Reyes Jr. and Antonio Villamor.
Records indicate that Alpap officers and members went on strike on June 5, 1998, which PAL claimed was deliberately done to coincide with the peak season for air travel, summer vacation and at a time when thousands of overseas Filipinos were set to travel to the Philippines for the country’s centennial celebration.
On the second day of the strike, PAL asserted that the striking Alpap members abandoned their assigned aircraft, together with their passengers and cargo at Bangkok, Thailand, and San Fransciso, California, USA.
As a result, the passengers were left stranded, rendering PAL liable for violation of its contract of carriage and forcing it to incur expenses by way of hotel accommodations and meals for passengers, airport parking fees and other operational expenses.
The illegal strike staged by Alpap pilots also crippled PAL’s operations, resulting in losses consisting of ticket refunds, extraordinary expenses to cope with the shutdown and lost income from canceled flights.
The striking pilots refused to heed the return-to-work order issued by the secretary of labor at the time, prompting PAL management to declare that the pilots have lost their employment status.
The appellate court subsequently upheld the ruling of the Department of Labor and Employment which declared the strike as illegal, prompting the pilots to elevate the case before the SC.
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