MALOLOS CITY – The National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) Regional Arbitration Board in Region 3 (RAB 3) has ordered the immediate reinstatement of Prof. Manuel G. Palomo as president of Wesleyan University – Philippines (WU-P).
In a decision penned by acting executive labor arbiter Mariano L. Bactin dated March 12, the NLRC held the respondents, the WU-P Board of Trustees and the United Methodist Church (UMC) Council of Bishops, liable and are ordered to pay Palomo, “jointly and solidarily,” more than P8.5 million in back wages and in actual moral and exemplary damages.
The decision said after careful evaluation of the facts and evidence presented, the NLRC found substantial, convincing and competent evidence that the complainant was illegally and unjustifiably dismissed from his employment as WU-P president.
In a statement issued after the verdict, Palomo said he “would not have fi led the complaint had any of the respondents mediated and conducted a dialogue with him.” Palomo was elected as the tenth WU-P president on April 27, 2009. If continuously served, his five-year term would end on April 30, 2014.
However, after serving for more than two years, he filed a oneyear leave of absence without pay which took effect on June 1, 2011. About nine months later, he informed the WU-P Board of Trustees that he was ready to reassume office as university president, for which on February 21, 2014, he wrote a letter to the chairman of the WU-P Board of Trustees, and this was duly received on February 24, 2012.
However, he did not receive any response from the board or its chairman, so on March 9, 2012, he wrote a letter to the WUP OIC president, Mr. Pacifico B. Aniag, telling him that he was reporting for work. So on March 11, 2012, he tried to resume his duties as university president. To his surprise, he was prevented from assuming his post.
Moreover, without giving him the chance to be informed and heard, he was summarily terminated as university president. The WU-P Board of Trustees issued Resolution No. 03:11:12:01 recommending to the UMC College of Bishops the “immediate and summary termination of Manuel Palomo pursuant to existing by-laws of the university.”
In turn, the College of Bishops, without due process, concurred with the Board of Trustees and declared that Palomo’s tenure as president of the university, was terminated as evidenced by their letter dated March 11, 2012.
Executive labor arbiter Bactin went on to say that “we give much respect to the religious institution which owns and runs the respondent university, with the thought in mind that they should be the champion in upholding the basic rights of its members, officers and employees.”
“However,” Bactin continued, “in the case of the complainant, we failed to see all his basic rights were duly protected and respected. We cannot just close our eyes to reality, particularly if the basic rights of our citizens will be trampled, disregarded and denied by those persons and parties who are supposed to uphold them.”
“The acts of the respondents of convening as a Board of Trustees and recommending to the College of Bishops the summary dismissal of the complainant which approved the same in a period of one day (March 11, 2012) is a clear case of deprivation of the complainant’s right to due process, the right and opportunity to know the charges against him and to have a hearing to explain his side, and confront his accusers, which completely show and prove that the complainant was humiliated, unjustly and illegally terminated in bad faith from his employment as president of Wesleyan University – Philippines,” Bactin further said in the decision.
The decision concluded: “premises considered, a judgment is hereby rendered declaring the complainant (Manuel G. Palomo) to be illegally dismissed from his position as “president” by respondents, Wesleyan University – Philippines, Board of Trustees and College of Bishops of the United Methodist Church (UMC).
All the respondents are hereby directed to reinstate the complainant to his former position as president of Wesleyan University – Philippines within ten calendar days from receipt of this decision, without loss of seniority rights and all his benefits and privileges attached to his position.”
“Further, all the respondents, are jointly and solidarily liable to pay the complainant the following:
1. Backwages in the amount of fi ve million forty thousand pesos (P5,040,000);
2. Actual, moral and exemplary damages, in the total amount of three million pesos (P3,000,000);
3. Attorney’s fees in the amount of five hundred four thousand pesos (P504,000)
Asked on his reinstatement, Palomo replied, “There is no winner or loser in this case, as we all belong to the United Methodist Church. I sought the intervention of the NLRC because of the absence of any mediation and reconciliation efforts. I looked for avenues to right a wrong.”
Palomo is the only WU-P undergraduate alumnus to get elected president of the university where he graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree. While teaching at the then Philippine Wesleyan College, he was handpicked as scholar at Yonsei University in Korea where he finished his Master’s Degree in Economics.
Palomo served as instructor in the university’s High School Department, then as full-time college faculty before becoming dean of the College of Commerce.
