421 Phil. 95
DE LEON, JR., J.:
It is evident that the death of SPO1 Tancinco on July 17, 1995, when he was on off duty status did not arise out of and in the course of his employment as a member of the PNP Security Command.Petitioner filed a petition for review from the aforesaid decision of the Commission before the Court of Appeals. On May 30, 1997, the appellate court issued the first assailed resolution[3] dismissing the petition for review on the following grounds: (a) that the certification of non-forum shopping was defective; (b) that certified true copies of material portions of the record were not attached to the petition; and (c) that the petition failed to state all the material dates which would establish the timeliness thereof. As admitted by petitioner herself, she received a copy of the resolution on June 9, 1997, and yet it was only on January 27, 1998, or seven-and-a-half (7 ½) months later, that she filed a motion for reconsideration. As can be expected, the appellate court denied her motion in the second assailed resolution[4] of March 5, 1998.
Apparently, the conditions aforementioned were not satisfied in the present case. Notably, SPO1 Tancinco was repairing his service vehicle at the time of his death. He was neither executing an order for VP Estrada nor performing an official function on that fateful day inasmuch as Police Superintendent Atilano Miranda duly certified that SPO1 Tancinco was on "off-duty status" on July 17, 1995.
We would like to stress once more that not all contingencies such as injury, disability, or death which befall an employee are compensable. The same must be the result of accident arising out of and in the course of employment.
Since the cause of SPO1 Tancinco's death is no longer part of his official functions, the claim for compensation benefits under Presidential Decree No. 626, as amended, cannot be given due course.
RESPONDENT COURT OF APPEALS COMMITTED GRAVE ABUSE OF DISCRETION OR A REVERSIBLE ERROR IN NOT ENTERTAINING THE PETITION FILED BY PETITIONER WHICH SUBSTANTIALLY COMPLIED WITH THE RULES AND WAS ON ITS FACE MERITORIOUS.In lieu of a comment, the Office of the Solicitor General filed a Manifestation[5] signifying its solidarity with petitioner. The Solicitor General adopts the view that SPO1 Tancinco's death is work-related given the circumstances under which he was killed, given that (a) the deceased was a policeman and (b) the killing was done in a professional manner. He speculates that the motive behind the killing "is likely to have arisen during the duration of the almost eighteen (18) years that he served as constable in the PC and as a policeman."
SECTION 1. Grounds--(a) For the injury and the resulting disability or death to be compensable, the injury must be the result of an employment accident satisfying all of the following conditions:The aforesaid requirements have not been met. Anent the first, as part of the former Vice-President's security detail, the decedent was required to guard the person of the former; hence, his presence was officially required wherever the Vice-President would go. At the time of his death, SPO1 Tancinco was off-duty since Vice-President Estrada was out of the country. In fact, he was at home; it is not even known if he was temporarily re-assigned to another detail while the Vice-President was away. Clearly, he was not at the place where his work required him to be.
(1) The employee must have been injured at the place where his work requires him to be;
(2) The employee must have been performing his official functions; and
(3) If the injury is sustained elsewhere, the employee must have been executing an order for the employer.xxx xxx xxx
xxx But for clarity's sake and as a guide for future cases, we hereby hold that members of the national police, like P/Sgt. Alvaran, are by the nature of their functions technically on duty 24 hours a day. Except when they are on vacation leave, policemen are subject to call at any time and may be asked by their superiors or by any distressed citizen to assist in maintaining the peace and security of the community.The twenty-four hour duty rule was originally applied to members of the armed forces,[11] until it was applied by extension to policemen, as aforesaid, and eventually to firemen.[12]xxx xxx xxx
We hold that by analogy and for purposes of granting compensation under P.D. No. 626, as amended, policemen should be treated in the same manner as soldiers.
Taking together jurisprudence and the pertinent guidelines of the ECC with respect to claims for death benefits, namely: (a) that the employee must be at the place where his work requires him to be; (b) that the employee must have been performing his official functions; and (c) that if the injury is sustained elsewhere, the employee must have been executing an order for the employer, it is not difficult to understand then why SPO2 Alegre's widow should be denied the claims otherwise due her. Obviously, the matter SPO2 Alegre was attending to at the time he met his death, that of ferrying passengers for a fee, was intrinsically private and unofficial in nature proceeding as it did from no particular directive or permission of his superior officer. In the absence of such prior authority as in the cases of Hinoguin and Nitura, or peacekeeping nature of the act attended to by the policeman at the time he died even without the explicit permission or directive of a superior officer, as in the case of P/Sgt. Alvaran, there is no justification for holding that SPO2 Alegre met the requisites set forth in the ECC guidelines. That he may be called upon at any time to render police work as he is considered to be on a round-the-clock duty and was not on an approved vacation leave will not change the conclusion arrived at considering that he was not placed in a situation where he was required to exercise his authority and duty as a policeman. In fact, he was refusing to render one pointing out that he already complied with the duty detail. At any rate, the 24-hour duty doctrine, as applied to policemen and soldiers, serves more as an after-the-fact validation of their acts to place them within the scope of the guidelines rather than a blanket license to benefit them in all situations that may give rise to their deaths. In other words, the 24-hour duty doctrine should not be sweepingly applied to all acts and circumstances causing the death of a police officer but only to those which, although not on official line of duty, are nonetheless basically police service in character. [italics supplied]In the present case, the decedent was repairing a service vehicle when he was killed. We have tried to view it from all possible angles, but the inescapable conclusion is that he was not performing acts that are "basically police service in character." As a policeman, SPO1 Tancinco is part of "an organized civil force for maintaining order, preventing and detecting crimes, and enforcing the laws xxx".[14] Based on these parameters, it cannot be said that the deceased was discharging official functions; if anything, repairing a service vehicle is only incidental to his job.