MANILA, Philippines -- The high-handedness and the shortcuts that the Aquino administration are resorting to in getting Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona ousted may have dire consequences for labor cases like the contractualization issue of the Philippine Airlines Employees Association now pending before the courts, said Dean Jonathan Sale of the University of the Philippines School of Labor and Industrial Relations.
After the Secretary of Labor assumed jurisdiction of the case and decided that PAL has the management prerogative to contract out three aspects of the airline operations, the workers appealed their case before President Benigno Aquino III, who subsequently affirmed the secretary’s decision. The workers have since gone to the Court of Appeals to seek judicial review of the executive’s rulings.
“Problem is, what if your courts are controlled by the present administration? What will become of the decision? Would you expect an Aquino-controlled Supreme Court to reverse? Sabi nga nung isang justice, ang sinabi ng hari ay hindi nababali (As one justice said, what the king says is law),” Sale told InterAksyon.com.
The actions of the Aquino administration in its oust Corona campaign are “very dangerous,” said Sale, who is also a lawyer.
“I am joining my brothers and sisters in the law profession who have spoken out against the totalitarian tendencies of the executive branch,” he said, referring to the statement of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines.
Sale warned against abusing the President’s popularity to advance its agenda to replace the chief justice with one who is more agreeable to the present administration. He said the President is already a “super president” with enormous powers at his disposable, and he should not use his popularity to manipulate public sentiment.
“Come to think of it, who is more prone to manipulate the public? A popular president or an unpopular president?” he asked.
“And you cannot say that (President Aquino) is incapable of abusing power,” he said.
PALEA at UP Lantern Parade
PALEA workers joined the SOLAIR contingent at Friday’s UP Lantern Parade. Aside from the Higantes representing the tripartite worker, capitalist, and government, SOLAIR accommodated the PALEA workers and their PAL plane replica in its presentation.
When the SOLAIR float approached the Palma Hall and the Melchor Hall steps, where huge crowds gathered to watch the parade, the PALEA workers chanted, “Ang laban ng PALEA ay laban ng lahat (PALEA’S fight is everyone’s fight).”
Sale said the Labor Code tilts in favor of the less powerful between labor and capital.
Citing Article 4 of the Labor Code, he said the government should have ruled in favor of PALEA in the contractualization case.
“That is actually in effect mentioned in the law: In cases of doubt, any doubt should be resolved in favor of labor,” he said.
“But in this case, di ganun nangyari. Parang sinasabi duon (that did not happen. It’s like saying), there is no doubt,” he added.
Workers’ employment contract tied to carrier’s contract to public
Sale raised another issue that has not been raised in connection to the PALEA contractualization case. He said the PALEA’s employment contract is closely linked to PAL’s obligations under the Civil Code.
According to a provision in the Civil Code, common carriers -- on land, air, and sea – are required to exercise extraordinary diligence in moving goods and people all throughout the travel process.
Meaning, the carrier’s contract with the public that the government must ensure and uphold covers the period from the time the passenger buys the ticket to until he disembarks and takes his baggage.
In the event of any damage to cargo or injury to passenger, the law presumes that the common carrier is negligent or at fault, Sale said, adding that the burden rests on the common carrier to establish that it exercised extraordinary diligence.
“If that is the contract of the carrier, can you cut it up in such a way that you parcel out aspects of it? How can the government now enforce that legal obligation?”
“This is one aspect (of the case) that has not been tackled extensively,” the SOLAIR dean said.
“The contract of employment of PAL employee is connected to contract of carrier,” he reiterated.
