WESTERN MINDANAO LUMBER CO., INC., PETITIONER, VS. THE COURT OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS AND THE MINDANAO FEDERATION OF LABOR, RESPONDENTS.

In case No. 618-V of the Court of Industrial Relations entitled Mindanao
Federation of Labor vs. Western Mindanao Lumber Co., Inc., petitioner sought the
reinstatement of three laborers, namely, Cirilo Manuel, Vicente Manuel and
Hermenegildo Santos on the ground that they were unjustifiably discharged.
Respondent claimed that their discharge was justifiable and set up a
counter-claim for the sum of P3,000, representing damages to its property and
business caused by their negligence. The case was instituted on October 12,1951
and tried by a commissioner on January 24-26, 1952. On May 16, 1952 the court
entered judgment granting the petition and ordering the reinstatement of the
laborers, under the same terms and conditions in which they were employed at the
time of their respective dismissal, with back wages from said time to the
respective dates of their reinstatement. The court dismissed the company’s
counterclaim on the ground that it had not yet made up its mind on the question
as to whether it had jurisdiction over the same. However, on August 29, 1952 it
reconsidered its refusal to consider the counterclaim and remanded the case to
one of its judges to take cognizance of and decide the counter-claim. On July 7,
1953 with the counterclaim yet undecided, the petitioner herein filed a
proceeding in this Court for certiorari against the decision of May 16, 1952,
ordering the reinstatement of the three laborers. But on November 11, 1952 this
Court, upon motion of petitioner itself, dismissed the petition as premature,
without prejudice to its reinstatement or renewal when the Court of Industrial
Relations shall have rendered a complete decision.

On February 5, 1954 the respondent court, upon petition of respondent labor
union, ordered the execution of its judgment of May 6, 1952 for the
reinstatement of the three laborers, but authorized respondent company to
withhold and keep in trust the amount of P3,000 from the back wages of Cirilo
Manuel and Vicente Manuel to answer for whatever amount the company may be able
to prove in an appropriate hearing in support of its counterclaim. This order of
execution is claimed to have been issued in excess of the respondent court’s
jurisdiction for the reason that there is no strike or lockout to which the
dismissals were related, and because the judgment is not yet complete, the
counterclaim being still undecided. The first reason given is based on the
contention that section 14 of Act No. 103, which expressly authorizes execution
pending appeal, is applicable only in cases of strikes and lockouts contemplated
in section 4 of the same Act. There is some truth in this contention. Section 14
of Act No. 103 is expressly intended to be applicable to cases where there are
disputes causing or likely to cause a strike or lockout. But it is unreasonable
to assume that immediate execution of an award is allowable only during strikes
or lockouts. The authority to order immediate execution must be considered
implied from the respondent court’s authority to decide and settle cases
involving employment (Sec. 1, C.A. 103). If such authority is to be exercised
justly, jt must be deemed to include immediate execution of its orders under
justifiable circumstances. In ordinary litigations not involving the dally bread
or the means of livelihood of litigants, immediate execution of a judgment is
expressly authorized in the discretion of the judge (Sec. 2, Rule 39 of the
Rules of Court; Sec. 8, Rule 72, Rules of Court; Art. 1674, Civil Code). A
reinstatement of a laborer by its very nature requires immediate execution both
for the welfare of the laborer, whose daily bread comes from his daily labor,
and for the employer so that he may promptly adjust his business to the new
situation created by the reinstatement. Immediate execution of awards or orders
for reinstatement are not necessary in cases of strikes and lockouts alone; they
are as essential in ordinary life as in the ordinary course of business. Delays
in appeals fire unavoidable, not only because full opportunity to litigants to
present and defend their rights must not be denied and is guaranteed by the
Constitution, but because the search for truth and justice in litigation is a
difficult and slow process. Because of these unavoidable delays, the laws has
devised the execution pending appeal provision, a positive remedy against the
delay of justice. Nowhere is the provision more essential to justice than in the
reinstatement now sought to be enjoined. We hold that the grant of the execution
was within the power and jurisdiction of the respondent court.

The same, reasons given above hold true as against the argument that the
judgment is not yet complete and that the execution of part thereof should not
be ordered Anyway the right of petitioner to its counterclaim is amply protected
in the order appealed from because authority is granted petitioner to retain the
back wages of the laborers to the amount of the counterclaim.

The petition should be, as it hereby is, denied, with costs against
petitioner.

Bengzon, Padilla, Reyes, A., Jugo, Bautista Angelo, Concepcion and
Reyes, J.B.L., JJ., concur.

Writ denied.