482 Phil. 34
CORONA, J.:
WHEREFORE, the appealed decision is hereby REVERSED and SET ASIDE. Accordingly, the decision dated 30 April 1997, of Labor Arbiter Eduardo J. Carpio is REINSTATED.[3]Respondent Tolentino was employed in petitioner PLDT for 23 years. He started in 1972 as an installer/helper and, at the time of his termination in 1995, was the division manager of the Project Support Division, Provincial Expansion Center, Meet Demand Group. His division was in charge of the evaluation, recommendation and review of documents relating to provincial lot acquisitions. Sometime in 1995, Jonathan de Rivera, a supervisor directly under respondent Tolentino, was found to have entered into an “internal arrangement” with the sellers of a parcel of land which he recommended for acquisition under PLDT’s expansion program. Quirino Donato, the attorney-in-fact of the landowner, executed an affidavit disclosing his “internal arrangement” with de Rivera. The “internal arrangement” consisted of the following:
Donato’s affidavit revealed that all follow-up calls regarding the transaction were to be directed to the office of respondent and de Rivera. Upon being apprised of this “internal arrangement,” PLDT dismissed de Rivera. After he was dismissed, de Rivera submitted a sworn statement to PLDT implicating respondent as the person behind the anomalous “internal arrangement.” Respondent, in an affidavit, denied this and pointed out that his authority to approve real estate acquisitions was limited to land valued below
- out of
P4,100,000.00 purchase price, onlyP3,400,000.00 will be automatically released to Mrs. Albay;- the
P3,400,000.00 is net of all documentation and transfer expenses;- payment will be released according to the following schedule:
a) the first amount will be released to PNB Ilagan Branch to pay off Mrs. Albay’s outstanding loan;b) the second amount will be released to Mrs. Lourdes Albay upon completion of the transfer;c) the final amount will be released and delivered personally by de Rivera and company subject to the “internal arrangement.”[4]
WHEREFORE, judgment is hereby rendered declaring as illegal the termination of complainant, and ordering respondent PLDT to reinstate him to his former position with full backwages and other benefits which as of March 31, 1997 has already amounted toOn appeal, the NLRC reversed the labor arbiter’s decision on the ground that respondent was a managerial employee and that loss of trust and confidence was enough reason to dismiss him.P656,800.00 (P41,000.00 x 16 mos.) which amount is subject to further adjustment until the complainant has been reinstated physically or in the payroll. Further, respondent PLDT is hereby ordered to pay herein complainant the amount ofP1,000,000.00 for moral damages andP100,000.00 for exemplary damages plus attorney’s fees in the amount which is equivalent to 10% of the total amount due the complainant.[5]
[w]hen an employee accepts a promotion to a managerial position or to an office requiring full trust and confidence, she gives up some of the rigid guaranties available to ordinary workers. Infractions which if committed by others would be overlooked or condoned or penalties mitigated may be visited with more severe disciplinary action. A company’s resort to acts of self-defense would be more easily justified.[8]Proof beyond reasonable doubt is not required provided there is a valid reason for the loss of trust and confidence, such as when the employer has a reasonable ground to believe that the managerial employee concerned is responsible for the purported misconduct and the nature of his participation renders him unworthy of the trust and confidence demanded by his position.[9]
Undoubtedly, when respondents received the raw information regarding complainant’s involvement in the anomalous transaction, there existed a plethora of possibilities. But we do not dwell on possibilities, suspicion and speculation. We rule based on hard facts and solid evidence. Thus, the dismissal of the complainant cannot justifiably be sustained since the findings in this case and the investigation of respondent Company failed to establish either complicity or culpability on the part of complainant. While dishonesty of an employee is not to be condoned, neither should a condemnation on that ground be tolerated based on suspicion spawned by speculative inferences. xxx True, complainant is a possible suspect, after all it was in his division where the said anomalous transaction emanated. However, the records are bereft of any showing that complainant is solely or partly responsible therefore (sic). Suspicion has never been a valid ground for the dismissal of an employee. The employee’s fate cannot, in justice, be hinged upon conjectures and surmises (quoting San Miguel Corporation v. NLRC, 18 SCRA 281). Evidently, respondents [petitioner PLDT] miserably failed to prove that the dismissal of complainant [respondent Tolentino] was for cause. The respondent’s evidence, although not required to be of such degree as is required in criminal cases, must be substantial. The same must clearly and convincingly establish the facts upon which loss of trust and confidence in the employee may be made to rest (quoting Plastic Starlite Industries Corp. v. NLRC, 171 SCRA 315). [15]To be sure, respondent Tolentino was remiss in his duties as division manager for failing to discover the “internal arrangement” contrived by his subordinate. However, we disagree that dismissal was the proper sanction for such negligence. It was not commensurate to the lapse committed, especially in the light of respondent’s unblemished record of long and dedicated service to the company. In Hongkong Shanghai Bank Corporation vs. NLRC,[16] we had occasion to rule that:
The penalty imposed must be commensurate to the depravity of the malfeasance, violation or crime being punished. A grave injustice is committed in the name of justice when the penalty imposed is grossly disproportionate to the wrong committed.Certainly, a great injustice will result if this Court upholds Tolentino’s dismissal.
[D]ismissal is the most severe penalty an employer can impose on an employee. It goes without saying that care must be taken, and due regard given to an employee’s circumstances, in the application of such punishment.
An employee who is unjustly dismissed from work shall be entitled to reinstatement without loss of seniority rights and other privileges and to his full backwages, inclusive of allowances, and to his other benefits or their monetary equivalent computed from the time his compensation was withheld from him up to the time of his actual reinstatement.Although a managerial employee, respondent should be reinstated to his former position or its equivalent without loss of seniority rights inasmuch as the alleged strained relations between the parties were not adequately proven by petitioner PLDT which had the burden of doing so. In Quijano vs. Mercury Drug Corporation,[17] we ruled that strained relations are a factual issue which must be raised before the labor arbiter for the proper reception of evidence. In this case, petitioner PLDT only raised the issue of strained relations in its appeal from the labor arbiter’s decision. Thus, no competent evidence exists in the records to support PLDT’s assertion that a peaceful working relationship with respondent Tolentino was no longer possible. In fact, the records of the case show that PLDT, through VP Sacdalan, gave respondent Tolentino the option to resign.[18] Such a deferential act by management makes us doubt PLDT’s claim that its relations with respondent were “strained.” The option to resign would not have been given had animosity existed between them.
Well-entrenched is the rule that an illegally dismissed employee is entitled to reinstatement as a matter of right. Over the years, however, the case law developed that where reinstatement is not feasible, expedient or practical, as where reinstatement would only exacerbate the tension and strained relations between the parties, or where relationship between the employer and employee has been unduly strained by reason of their irreconcilable differences, particularly where the illegally dismissed employee held a managerial or key position in the company, it would be more prudent to order payment of separation pay instead of reinstatement. Some unscrupulous employers, however, have taken advantage of the overgrowth of this doctrine of “strained relations” by using it as a cover to get rid of its employees and thus defeat their right to job security.This Court is cognizant of management’s right to select the people who will manage its business as well as its right to dismiss them. However, this right cannot be abused. Its exercise must always be tempered with compassion and understanding. As former Chief Justice Enrique Fernando eloquently put it:
To protect labor’s security of tenure, we emphasize that the doctrine of “strained relations” should be strictly applied so as not to deprive an illegally dismissed employee of his right to reinstatement. Every labor dispute almost always results in “strained relations” and the phrase cannot be given an overarching interpretation, otherwise, an unjustly dismissed employee can never be reinstated.[19]
Where a penalty less severe would suffice, whatever missteps may be committed by labor ought not to be visited with consequence so severe. It is not only because of the law’s concern for the workingmen. There is, in addition, his family to consider. Unemployment brings untold hardships and sorrows on those dependent on the wage-earner. The misery and pain attendant on the loss of jobs then could be avoided if there be acceptance of the view that under all the circumstances of a case, the workers should not be deprived of their means of livelihood. Nor is this to condone what has been done by them.[20]To reinstate respondent is not to condone his “misstep” since his participation in the “internal arrangement” was not sufficiently established to warrant his dismissal from PLDT which he served faithfully for 23 years.