GR 128192; (April, 1999) (Digest)
G.R. No. 128192 April 14, 1999
ASSOCIATED LABOR UNIONS (ALU) and PASAR EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION (PEA-ALU), petitioners, vs. SECRETARY LEONARDO A. QUISUMBING, NATIONAL FEDERATION OF LABOR UNIONS (NAFLU), and PHILIPPINE ASSOCIATED SMELTING AND REFINING CORPORATION (PASAR), respondents.
FACTS
Petitioner PEA-ALU and respondent PASAR had a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) set to expire on November 21, 1995. On November 7, 1995, within the 60-day freedom period, respondent NAFLU filed a petition for certification election on behalf of its local affiliate, COPPER. The Med-Arbiter granted the petition on November 29, 1995, noting it was “upon agreement of the parties,” conditional on NAFLU furnishing its constitution and bylaws. PEA-ALU later moved to dismiss, arguing NAFLU’s affiliate lacked legal personality as a legitimate labor organization at the time of filing. COPPER was issued its Certificate of Registration on December 7, 1995. The Med-Arbiter dismissed the petition on January 26, 1996, but the Secretary of Labor reversed this on appeal.
ISSUE
Whether the Secretary of Labor acted with grave abuse of discretion in granting NAFLU’s petition for certification election despite COPPER’s registration being completed after the freedom period.
RULING
The Supreme Court dismissed the petition, affirming the Secretary of Labor’s Resolutions. The legal logic rests on two key principles. First, petitioner PEA-ALU was estopped from challenging the certification election order because it explicitly agreed to the election’s conduct, as stated in the Med-Arbiter’s November 29, 1995 Order. By agreeing, PEA-ALU waived any procedural objections and could not later assail the order it had consented to.
Second, the Court applied the doctrine of nunc pro tunc registration. While COPPER received its official Certificate of Registration on December 7, 1995, it had submitted all required documents to the DOLE Regional Office on December 1, 1995. This compliance retroacts to the date of the petition’s filing on November 17, 1995. Therefore, by legal fiction, COPPER was considered a legitimate labor organization with legal personality at the precise time NAFLU filed the petition within the freedom period. This cured any initial infirmity and validated the petition. The Secretary of Labor correctly held that the petition was duly filed and properly granted.