GAPAN FARMERS’ COOPERATIVE MARKETING ASSOCIATION, INC., PETITIONER AND APPELLEE, VS. FE PARIAL, LUCY CABATUANDO, REGIONAL OFFICE NO. 3 DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, MANILA AND THE PROVIN…

Appeal by respondents herein from a decision of the Court of First
Instance of Nueva Ecija annulling certain “decisions” of Regional
Office No. 3 of the department of Labor and enjoining said respondents
from enforcing said “decisions”, with costs against them.

Respondents Fe Parial and Lucy Cabatuando were former employees of
the Gapan Farmers’ Cooperative Marketing Association Inc., hereinafter
referred to as the Association. On December 11, 1957, said respondents
filed with the aforementioned office their respective complaints for
alleged unpaid wages under the Minimum Wage Law (Republic Act No. 202)
for the period from February 1954 to September 1957, in the case of Fe
Parial, and from May 1954 to September 1957, as regards Lucy
Cabatuando. Although the Association pleaded prescription and contested
the jurisdiction of said office, a Hearing Officer thereof, after
hearing both parties, rendered two “decisions”, dated September 5,
1958, ordering the Association to pay to Fe Pariat and Lucy Cabatuando
the sums of P2,095 and P2,410, respectively, with interest thereon, at
the legal rate, tern January 14, 1958, until fully paid. The
Association appealed to the Labor Standards Commission which, however,
dismissed the appeals, upon the ground that the Association’s memoranda
in support thereof had been filed beyond the reglementary period.
Subsequently, the corresponding Regional Administrator issued a writ
for the execution of said “decisions” of the Hearing Officer.

When the Provincial Sheriff of Nueva Ecija was about to comply with
said writ, the Association instituted the present action for
certiorari, against Fe Parial and Lucy Cabatuando, as well as against
said Regional Office No. 3 and the aforementioned Provincial Sheriff,
to restrain them from enforcing the aforesaid writ, upon the ground
that the same and the “decisions” of the Hearing Officer were null and
void, said “decisions” and writ having been rendered and issued
respectively upon the authority of Section 25 of Reorganization Plan
No. 20-A, which is allegedly unconstitutional. The Court of First
Instance of Nueva Ecija upheld this pretense, upon the ground that
Republic Act No. 997—upon the authority of which said Plan had been
formulated and adopted by the Government Survey and Reorganization
Commission—contemplated a reorganization merely of the executive branch
of the Government and that, investing the Regional Offices of the
Department of Labor with authority to hear money claims and render
“decisions” thereon, as well as in authorizing Regional Administrators
to issue writs for the execution of said decisions, the Plan sought to
clothe said offices and officers with a judicial power belonging to and
possessed by courts of justice and, accordingly, to deprive the latter
of its corresponding jurisdiction, thereby exceeding the authority
conferred upon the Commission, apart from violating the principle of
separation of powers by conferring judicial powers upon an agency of
the executive branch. Hence, this appeal by respondents, who assail the
view thus taken by His Honor, the trial Judge. Such view is, however,
fully in accord with the doctrine laid down by this Court in Corominas vs. Labor Standard Commission, 112 Phil., 551 and reiterated in subsequent cases (Miller vs. Mardo, 112 Phil., 792; Calfcex [Phil.] Ins. vs. Villanueva, 59 Off. Gaz. (47) 8071; W Tan vs. De Leon, L-15254 [September 16, 1961] La Mallorca vs. Ramos, et al., L-15476 [September 19, 1961] ; and Velez vs. Saavedra, et al., L-16386 [January 31, 1962]).

Wherefore, the decision appealed from is hereby affirmed, with the
costs of this instance against respondents Fe Parial and Lucy
Cabatuando. It is so ordered.

Bengzon, C. J., Padilla, Labrador, Barrera, Paredes, Dizon, Regala, and Makalintal, JJ., concur.