Times bus employees seek release of P131 M benefits

By Mar T. Supnad

Employees of the defunct Times Transit Company sought Tuesday immediate implementation of a writ of execution to claim their P131 million monetary award after the Supreme Court affirmed decisions of the National Labor Relations Commission and Court of Appeals favoring employees’ compensation.

The bus employees who walked four days to the National labor Relations Commission in Quezon Ave., Quezon City from Vigan City in Ilocos Sur and Bangued, Abra conducted a peaceful rally in front of the NLRC.

 They urged Labor Arbiter Patricio Libo-on to issue an order giving their monetary benefits after 17 years of legal battle between the employees headed by its president NoriArcaina and the Times Transit headed by its president Santiago Rondaris.

In an interview with this writer, Libo-on said he will act next week on the petition for writ of execution by the employees, even as he blamed Times Transit management   for initiating dilatory tactics that led to the delay of the granting of the employees’ benefits.

“Palaging hinaharang ng management ang kahilingang mabayaran na ang mgakawani base sa order ng NLRC, CA at Supreme Court,” said Libo-on.

The Union president said that the monetary award of P34 million and P97 million due them had been granted by the NLRC, affirmed by the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court and yet the Times Transit management still refused to honor it as it resorts to filing unending motions for reconsiderations that had been always denied by the CA and SC.

The bus management, after failing to get a favorable decision from the labor arbiter, sought that Libo-on inhibit himself from the case, but this was contested by the employees.

“Every time when the management fails to get a favorable decision from the labor arbiter it will seek the removal of the arbiter, which is not good,” said Arcaina.

The case stemmed when the employees filed a Notice of Strike in 1997 for unfair labor practices.

The cases had dragged on for several years despite the NLREC’s and CA’s decision granting the employees’ monetary benefits.

At the height of the labor dispute, records showed, Times Transit management sold its buses to a corporation owned by relatives of Rondaris to prevent the employees from gaining their benefits in what the CA and SC called as highly suspicious.

“We uphold the findings of the labor arbiter and the Court of Appeals. The sale of Times Transit’s franchise as well as most of its bus units to a company owned by the Rondaris’ daughter and family members, right in the middle of a labor dispute, is highly suspicious. It is evident that the transaction was made in order to remove Times’ remaining assets from the reach of any judgment that maybe rendered in the unfair labor practice cases filed against it,” said the SC decision as it affirmed in toto the CA and NLRC’s decisions.

Owing to this, the NLRC had also approved the levy of some assets of the Times Transit.

The employees, however, said that their claim for monetary benefits cannot yet be implemented without the final issuance of writ of execution by the labor arbiter.