PHILIPPINE AIRLINES, INC., PETITIONER, VS. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS COMMISSION & RODOLFO SALAZAR, ANTONIO MAGNO AND CLEMENTE BASINILLO, JR., RESPONDENTS.

This petition for certiorari with preliminary injunction
seeks to annul the portion of the decision of the Labor Arbiter which awards
full backwages to the private respondents from the
dates of their respective preventive suspensions up to the date of actual
reinstatement, as well as the decision of the respondent Commission affirming in
toto the Labor Arbiter’s decision.

On August 24, 1983, this Court issued a Temporary Restraining
Order restraining the National Labor Relations Commission from enforcing the
decision of the Labor Arbiter insofar as it requires the herein petitioner to
pay private respondents their backwages but not the
order for private respondents’ reinstatement to their former positions.

The private respondents were administratively charged with
serious misconduct for the attempted pilferage of two cases of wine from the bonded warehouse of the Philippine
Airlines on June 12, 1978.  After a formal investigation, the
respondents were found guilty of
the administrative charge and were recommended for dismissal from the service.

On July 25, 1978, the petitioner filed with the
Ministry of Labor and Employment an application for clearance to terminate the
services of private respondents Clemente Basinillo, Jr., a storekeeper, and Antonio Magno and Rodolfo Salazar, Commissary Supplymen
of Catering Services of petitioner for the attempted pilferage of the two cases
of wine.  The respondents were dismissed.

As a consequence, the private respondents filed a case for
illegal dismissal against the petitioner. 
The case was assigned for arbitration to Labor Arbiter Francisco Jose,
Jr.  The parties agreed to submit the
case for decision after submission of their respective position papers.  Based on the papers submitted, Labor Arbiter
Jose rendered his decision dated August
14, 1981, the dispositive portion of
which states:

“WHEREFORE, IN VIEW OF ALL THE FOREGOING, judgment is hereby
rendered:

“1.  Denying the instant Application for clearance;
and,

“2.  Ordering respondent Philippine Airlines, Inc.
to reinstate individual complainants Clemente Basinillo, Jr., Antonio Magno and
Rodolfo Salazar to their former positions with full backwages
from the date of their respective preventive suspension up to the date of
actual reinstatement and without
loss of seniority rights.”

The petitioner appealed the decision of the Labor Arbiter to the
National Labor Relations Commis­sion on December 16, 1981.

On June 16, 1983, the National Labor Relations Commission
affirmed in toto the decision of the
Labor Arbiter.

Its motion for reconsideration having been denied, the petitioner
filed the present petition.  We consider
the comments filed by the public respondents and the private respondents as
their respective answers.  Issues having
been joined, we resolve this petition.

The petitioner is no longer questioning the reinstatement of the
private respondents.  It, however,
contends that since the dismissal of the private respondents was made in good
faith and in the honest belief that the private respondents committed misconduct it should not be made to
shoulder the whole burden of backwages of private
respondents from the date of their respective preventive suspension up to the
date of actual reinstatement.  It further
argues that the long pendency of the case is not due
to its own fault.  Counsel for the public
respondent agrees with these conten­tions.

We find the petition to be meritorious.  In the case of Mercury Drug Co., Inc. v.
Court of Industrial Relations (56 SCRA 694) this Court adopted the policy
of fixing the amount of backwages to a just and
reasonable level without qualification and deduction to do away with the
attendant delay in awarding backwages because of the
extended hearing to prove the earnings elsewhere of each and every
employee.  In view of this policy, we
consistently awarded backwages to the maximum of only
three (3) years.  (People’s
Bank and Trust Company, et al. v. People’s Bank and Trust Company
Employees Union, et. al., 69 SCRA 10; Insular Life
Insurance Co., Ltd. Employees Association-NATU v. Insular Life Assurance Co.,
Ltd., 76 SCRA 50; Monteverde, et al. v. CIR, et al.,
79 SCRA 259; Danao Development Corporation v. NLRC,
et al., 81 SCRA 489; L.R. Aguinaldo, Inc. v. CIR, et
al., 82 SCRA 309; Liberty Cotton Mills Workers Union v. Liberty Cotton Mills,
Inc., 90 SCRA 391; Litex Employees Association, et
al. v. CIR, et al., 116 SCRA 459).

In the recent case of Capital Garment Corporation v. Ople (117 SCRA 473) this Court held that “since
this case has been pending for four (4) years, we find that a period of two
years for purposes of fixing the backwages of
petitioner is fair and reasonable.”

The present case has been pending for five (5) years and four (4)
months.  Considering the reasons for the
fixing of backwages as indicated in the abovecited decisions and following the ruling in the Capital
Garment Corporation case, an award of two and one-half years of backwages is just and equitable.

WHEREFORE, the decision of the Labor Arbiter as well as of
that of the respondent Commission are hereby MODIFIED insofar as the payment of
backwages is concerned and the petitioner is ordered
to pay the private respondents
their corresponding backwages for a period of two and
one-half years to be computed on the basis of their respective rate of earnings
as of July 25, 1978 without qualification and deduction.  The temporary restrain­ing order issued on
August 24, 1983 is also ordered LIFTED.

SO ORDERED.

Teehankee, (Chairman), Melencio-Herrera, Plana, and Relova, JJ., concur.