SOCIAL SECURITY EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION (PAFLU) AND ALFREDO FAJARDO, PETITIONERS, VS. THE HON. EDILBERTO SORIANO, THE HON. JOSE LEUTERIO AND SOCIAL SECURITY COMMISSION, RESPONDENTS.

Petition for certiorari to declare as unlawful the injunctive order
issued by the Court of First Instance of Manila, Hon. Edilberto
Soriano, presiding, dated June 12, 1961 and clarified on May 19, 1962
by the Hon. Jose Leuterio of said court, said order having allegedly
been issued without jurisdiction and with grave abuse of discretion,
and for the issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction restraining
the enforcement of said injunctive order.

Petitioner Social Security Employees Association (PAFLU) is a labor
union composed of employees of the Social Security Commission, while
petitioner Alfredo Fajardo is its president. On May 16, 1961, the
employees of the Commission declared a strike for the second time
against the Social Security Commission and its executive arm, the
Social Security System. While petitioners were on strike, the
respondent Hon. Edilberto Soriano, Judge of the Court of First Instance
of Manila, issued on June 12, 1961, an order granting a writ of
preliminary injunction against the strikers, the dispositive part of
which reads:

“Consonant with the foregoing, the writ of
preliminary and mandatory injunction prayed for is hereby granted, and
respondents are (1) enjoined from intimidating, threatening, and/or
preventing non-union employees of the Social Security System as well as
other employees of the System from reporting to work, as well as
preventing persons transacting official business with the System from
going to and leaving the premises of the Social Security System, and
(2) the members of respondent Social Security Employees to work and to
discharge their respective duties. (Annex “A” to Petition).

Complying with the above order, the strikers lifted their pickets
and returned to work. However, as a result of several new disputes with
the respondent Commission, the petitioner union again declared another
strike on May 16, 1962. On May 17, 1962, respondent Commission filed
with Judge Soriano a motion to declare in contempt of court the
petitioners for allegedly violating injunctive order of June 12, 1961.
When summoned to answer the motion for contempt, petitioners explained
that in the light of Section 9 of Republic Act No. 875, the injunctive
order could not have included a prohibition against
petitioners-unionists from striking anew while the main case below was
pending. During the hearing on the motion for contempt held May 19,
1962, the respondent Judge Jose Leuterio (who substituted Judge Soriano
who went on vacation) issued an order clarifying the June 12, 1962
injunctive order to mean that it “in effect prohibited a strike for the
duration cf the order and until it is set aside.” (Annex “B” to
Petition)

On May 21, 1962, the petitioners filed an “Urgent Motion to
Reconsider and/Or dissolve The Preliminary Injunction” as clarified in
the order of May 19, 1962 on the ground that said order directly
violates the mandate in Section 9 of Republic Act No. 875 that there
can be no injunction issued against any strike except in only one case,
that is, when a labor dispute arises in an industry indispensable to
the national interest and such dispute is certified by the President of
the Philippines to the Court of Industrial Relations under Section 10,
Republic Act No. 875. On June 26, 1962 said urgent motion to
reconsider, etc. was denied by Judge Soriano.

Petitioners now claim that the clarificatory order on the injunction
order is causing great and irreparable damage, and grave injustice to
them, and there is no appeal, nor any other plain., speedy, and
adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law from said orders except
the present petition for certiorari with preliminary injunction.

Considering that the Social Security System is a government-owned
corporation performing basically proprietary functions (Social Security
System Employees Ass’n. vs. Soriano, et al., G.R. No.
L-18061, April 30, 1963) and as such is under the operation of the
Magna Charta of Labor, it is evident that the Court of First Instance
of Manila is without jurisdiction to issue the orders sought to be
reviewed.

Wherefore the petition and the writ prayed for are hereby granted, and the questioned orders declared void. Without costs.

Bautista Angelo, Concepcion, Reyes, J. B. L., Paredes, Regala and Makalintal, JJ., concur. .