High Court upholds govt stand on OT

THE Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday upheld Malacañang’s position in giving overtime pay and ordered the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to implement Customs Administrative Order (CAO) 1-2005 in connection with the proposed increase in the overtime rates of Customs personnel at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

Justices who concurred with the ruling of the High Court’s Second Division—which was penned by Associate Justice Antonio Carpio—were Arturo Brion, Mariano del Castillo, Jose Portugal Perez and Maria Lourdes Sereno.

“We deny the petition [of Sergio Carbonilla et al] . . . We grant the petition [of the Office of the President] and set aside the 9 July 2009 decision and 26 October 2010 resolution of the Court of Appeals. Petitioner Bureau of Customs is directed to implement CAO 1-2005 immediately,” the ruling said.

The Supreme Court denied motions for intervention of Carbonilla, Emilio Legaspi 4th and Adonais Rejuso for lack of merit.

It junked Board of Airlines Representatives (BAR)’s allegations that the Customs bureau had failed to publish the required notice of public hearing and to conduct public hearings to give all parties the opportunity to be heard prior to the issuance of CAO 1-2005 as required under Section 9(2), Chapter I, Book VII of the Administrative Code of the Philippines.

“BAR and the Airline Operators Council participated in these meetings and discussions. Hence, BAR cannot claim that it was denied due process in the imposition of the increase of the overtime rate,” the ruling said.

It held that “CAO 1-2005 was published in . . . a newspaper of general circulation in the Philippines on 18 February 2005 and while it was supposed to take effect on 5 March 2005, or 15 days after its publication, the BOC-NAIA still deferred BAR’s compliance until 16 March 2005.”

In its petition, the Office of the President alleged that prior to the amendment of CAO, the Customs bureau created on April 23, 2002 a committee to review the overtime pay of its personnel in NAIA and to propose its adjustment from the exchange rate of P25 to $1 to the then-exchange rate of P55 to $1. –JOMAR CANLAS REPORTER, Manila Times