30. G.R. No.

170388 September 4, 2013

COLEGIO DEL SANTISIMO ROSARIO AND SR. ZENAIDA S. MOFADA,
OP, PETITIONERS,
vs.
EMMANUEL ROJO,* RESPONDENT.
DECISION
DEL CASTILLO, J.:
This Petition for Review on Certiorari1 assails the August 31, 2005 Decision2 and the
November 10, 2005 Resolution3 of the Court of Appeals (CA) in CA-G.R. SP No. 85188,
which affirmed the July 31, 2003 Decision4 of the National Labor Relations Commission
(NLRC). Said NLRC Decision affirmed with modification the October 7, 2002
Decision5 of the Labor Arbiter (LA) which, in turn, granted respondent Emmanuel Rojo’s
(respondent) Complaint6 for illegal dismissal.
Factual Antecedents
Petitioner Colegio del Santisimo Rosario (CSR) hired respondent as a high school
teacher on probationary basis for the school years 1992-1993, 1993-19947 and 1994-
1995.8
On April 5, 1995, CSR, through petitioner Sr. Zenaida S. Mofada, OP (Mofada), decided
not to renew respondent’s services.9
Thus, on July 13, 1995, respondent filed a Complaint10 for illegal dismissal. He alleged
that since he had served three consecutive school years which is the maximum number
of terms allowed for probationary employment, he should be extended permanent
employment. Citing paragraph 75 of the 1970 Manual of Regulations for Private Schools
(1970 Manual), respondent asserted that "full- time teachers who have rendered three
(3) consecutive years of satisfactory services shall be considered permanent." 11
On the other hand, petitioners argued that respondent knew that his Teacher’s Contract
for school year 1994-1995 with CSR would expire on March 31, 1995.12 Accordingly,
respondent was not dismissed but his probationary contract merely expired and was not
renewed.13 Petitioners also claimed that the "three years" mentioned in paragraph 75 of
the 1970 Manual refer to "36 months," not three school years.14 And since respondent
served for only three school years of 10 months each or 30 months, then he had not yet
served the "three years" or 36 months mentioned in paragraph 75 of the 1970 Manual. 15
Ruling of the Labor Arbiter
The LA ruled that "three school years" means three years of 10 months, not 12
months.16 Considering that respondent had already served for three consecutive school
years, then he has already attained regular employment status. Thus, the non-renewal
of his contract for school year 1995-1996 constitutes illegal dismissal.17
The LA also found petitioners guilty of bad faith when they treated respondent’s
termination merely as the expiration of the third employment contract and when they
insisted that the school board actually deliberated on the non-renewal of respondent’s
employment without submitting admissible proof of his alleged regular performance
evaluation.18
The dispositive portion of the LA’s Decision19 reads:
WHEREFORE, premises considered, judgment is hereby rendered ordering the
[petitioners]:
 1. To pay [respondent] the total amount of ₱39,252.00 corresponding to his
severance compensation and 13th month pay, moral and exemplary damages.
2. To pay 10% of the total amount due to [respondent] as attorney’s fees.
All other claims are dismissed for lack of merit.
SO ORDERED.20
Ruling of the National Labor Relations Commission
On appeal, the NLRC affirmed the LA’s Decision with modification. It held that after
serving three school years, respondent had attained the status of regular
employment21 especially because CSR did not make known to respondent the
reasonable standards he should meet.22 The NLRC also agreed with the LA that
respondent’s termination was done in bad faith. It held that respondent is entitled to
reinstatement, if viable; or separation pay, if reinstatement was no longer feasible, and
backwages, viz:
WHEREFORE, premises considered, the appealed Decision is hereby, AFFIRMED with
MODIFICATION only insofar as the award of separation pay is concerned. Since
[respondent] had been illegally dismissed, [petitioner] Colegio Del Santisimo Rosario is
hereby ordered to reinstate him to his former position without loss of seniority rights with
full backwages until he is actually reinstated. However, if reinstatement is no longer
feasible, the respondent shall pay separation pay, in [addition] to the payment of his full
backwages.
The Computation Division is hereby directed to compute [respondent’s] full backwages
to be attached and to form part of this Decision.
The rest of the appealed Decision stands.
SO ORDERED.23
Petitioners moved for reconsideration which the NLRC denied in its April 28, 2004
Resolution24 for lack of merit.
Ruling of the Court of Appeals
Petitioners filed a Petition for Certiorari25 before the CA alleging grave abuse of
discretion on the part of the NLRC in finding that respondent had attained the status of a
regular employee and was illegally dismissed from employment.
In a Decision26 dated August 31, 2005, the CA denied the Petition for lack of merit.
Citing Cagayan Capitol College v. National Labor Relations Commission, 27 it held that
respondent has satisfied all the requirements necessary to acquire permanent
employment and security of tenure viz:
1. The teacher is a full-time teacher;
2. The teacher must have rendered three (3) consecutive years of service; and
3. Such service must be satisfactory.28
According to the CA, respondent has attained the status of a regular employee after he
was employed for three consecutive school years as a full-time teacher and had served
CSR satisfactorily. Aside from being a high school teacher, he was also the Prefect of
Discipline, a task entailing much responsibility. The only reason given by Mofada for not
renewing respondent’s contract was the alleged expiration of the contract, not any
unsatisfactory service. Also, there was no showing that CSR set performance standards
for the employment of respondent, which could be the basis of his satisfactory or
unsatisfactory performance. Hence, there being no reasonable standards made known
to him at the time of his engagement, respondent was deemed a regular employee and
was, thus, declared illegally dismissed when his contract was not renewed.
Petitioners moved for reconsideration. However, the CA denied the motion for lack of
merit in its November 10, 2005 Resolution.29
Hence, the instant Petition. Incidentally, on May 23, 2007, we issued a
Resolution30 directing the parties to maintain the status quo pending the resolution of
the present Petition.
Issue
WHETHER THE COURT OF APPEALS [AS WELL AS THE NATIONAL LABOR
RELATIONS COMMISSION] COMMITTED GRIEVOUS AND REVERSIBLE ERROR
WHEN IT RULED THAT A BASIC EDUCATION (ELEMENTARY) TEACHER HIRED
FOR THREE (3) CONSECUTIVE SCHOOL YEARS AS A PROBATIONARY
EMPLOYEE AUTOMATICALLY AND/OR BY LAW BECOMES A PERMANENT
EMPLOYEE UPON COMPLETION OF HIS THIRD YEAR OF PROBATION
NOTWITHSTANDING [A] THE PRONOUNCEMENT OF THIS HONORABLE COURT
IN COLEGIO SAN AGUSTIN V. NLRC, 201 SCRA 398 1991 THAT A PROBATIONARY
TEACHER ACQUIRES PERMANENT STATUS "ONLY WHEN HE IS ALLOWED TO
WORK AFTER THE PROBATIONARY PERIOD" AND [B] DOLE-DECS-CHED-TESDA
ORDER NO. 01, S. 1996 WHICH PROVIDE THAT TEACHERS WHO HAVE SERVED
THE PROBATIONARY PERIOD "SHALL BE MADE REGULAR OR PERMANENT IF
ALLOWED TO WORK AFTER SUCH PROBATIONARY PERIOD."31
Petitioners maintain that upon the expiration of the probationary period, both the school
and the respondent were free to renew the contract or let it lapse. Petitioners insist that
a teacher hired for three consecutive years as a probationary employee does not
automatically become a regular employee upon completion of his third year of
probation. It is the positive act of the school – the hiring of the teacher who has just
completed three consecutive years of employment on probation for the next school year
– that makes the teacher a regular employee of the school.
Our Ruling
We deny the Petition.
In Mercado v. AMA Computer College-Parañaque City, Inc.,32 we had occasion to rule
that cases dealing with employment on probationary status of teaching personnel are
not governed solely by the Labor Code as the law is supplemented, with respect to the
period of probation, by special rules found in the Manual of Regulations for Private
Schools (the Manual). With regard to the probationary period, Section 92 of the 1992
Manual33 provides:
Section 92. Probationary Period. – Subject in all instances to compliance with the
Department and school requirements, the probationary period for academic personnel
shall not be more than three (3) consecutive years of satisfactory service for those in
the elementary and secondary levels, six (6) consecutive regular semesters of
satisfactory service for those in the tertiary level, and nine (9) consecutive trimesters of
satisfactory service for those in the tertiary level where collegiate courses are offered on
a trimester basis. (Emphasis supplied)
In this case, petitioners’ teachers who were on probationary employment were made to
enter into a contract effective for one school year. Thereafter, it may be renewed for
another school year, and the probationary employment continues. At the end of the
second fixed period of probationary employment, the contract may again be renewed for
the last time.
Such employment for fixed terms during the teachers’ probationary period is an
accepted practice in the teaching profession. In Magis Young Achievers’ Learning
Center v. Manalo,34 we noted that:
The common practice is for the employer and the teacher to enter into a contract,
effective for one school year. At the end of the school year, the employer has the option
not to renew the contract, particularly considering the teacher’s performance. If the
contract is not renewed, the employment relationship terminates. If the contract is
renewed, usually for another school year, the probationary employment continues.
Again, at the end of that period, the parties may opt to renew or not to renew the
contract. If renewed, this second renewal of the contract for another school year would
then be the last year – since it would be the third school year – of probationary
employment. At the end of this third year, the employer may now decide whether to
extend a permanent appointment to the employee, primarily on the basis of the
employee having met the reasonable standards of competence and efficiency set by the
employer. For the entire duration of this three-year period, the teacher remains under
probation. Upon the expiration of his contract of employment, being simply on probation,
he cannot automatically claim security of tenure and compel the employer to renew his
employment contract. It is when the yearly contract is renewed for the third time that
Section 93 of the Manual becomes operative, and the teacher then is entitled to regular
or permanent employment status. (Emphases supplied)
However, this scheme "of fixed-term contract is a system that operates during the
probationary period and for this reason is subject to Article 281 of the Labor
Code,"35 which provides:
x x x The services of an employee who has been engaged on a probationary basis may
be terminated for a just cause or when he fails to qualify as a regular employee in
accordance with reasonable standards made known by the employer to the employee at
the time of his engagement. An employee who is allowed to work after a probationary
period shall be considered a regular employee. [Emphasis supplied]
In Mercado, we held that "[u]nless this reconciliation is made, the requirements of
[Article 281 on probationary status would be fully negated as the school may freely
choose not to renew contracts simply because their terms have expired." 36 This will
have an unsettling effect in the equilibrium vis-a-vis the relations between labor and
management that the Constitution and Labor Code have worked hard to establish.
That teachers on probationary employment also enjoy the protection afforded by Article
281 of the Labor Code is supported by Section 93 of the 1992 Manual which provides:
Sec. 93. Regular or Permanent Status. - Those who have served the probationary
period shall be made regular or permanent. Full-time teachers who have satisfactorily
completed their probationary period shall be considered regular or permanent.
(Emphasis supplied)
The above provision clearly provides that full-time teachers become regular or
permanent employees once they have satisfactorily completed the probationary period
of three school years.37 The use of the term satisfactorily necessarily connotes the
requirement for schools to set reasonable standards to be followed by teachers on
probationary employment. For how else can one determine if probationary teachers
have satisfactorily completed the probationary period if standards therefor are not
provided?
As such, "no vested right to a permanent appointment shall accrue until the employee
has completed the prerequisite three-year period necessary for the acquisition of a
permanent status. [However, it must be emphasized that] mere rendition of service for
three consecutive years does not automatically ripen into a permanent appointment. It is
also necessary that the employee be a full-time teacher, and that the services he
rendered are satisfactory."38
In Mercado, this Court, speaking through J. Brion, held that:
The provision on employment on probationary status under the Labor Code is a primary
example of the fine balancing of interests between labor and management that the
Code has institutionalized pursuant to the underlying intent of the Constitution.
On the one hand, employment on probationary status affords management the chance
to fully scrutinize the true worth of hired personnel before the full force of the security of
tenure guarantee of the Constitution comes into play. Based on the standards set at the
start of the probationary period, management is given the widest opportunity during the
probationary period to reject hirees who fail to meet its own adopted but reasonable
standards. These standards, together with the just and authorized causes for
termination of employment [which] the Labor Code expressly provides, are the grounds
available to terminate the employment of a teacher on probationary status. x x x
Labor, for its part, is given the protection during the probationary period of knowing the
company standards the new hires have to meet during the probationary period, and to
be judged on the basis of these standards, aside from the usual standards applicable to
employees after they achieve permanent status. Under the terms of the Labor Code,
these standards should be made known to the teachers on probationary status at the
start of their probationary period, or at the very least under the circumstances of the
present case, at the start of the semester or the trimester during which the probationary
standards are to be applied. Of critical importance in invoking a failure to meet the
probationary standards, is that the school should show – as a matter of due process –
how these standards have been applied. This is effectively the second notice in a
dismissal situation that the law requires as a due process guarantee supporting the
security of tenure provision, and is in furtherance, too, of the basic rule in employee
dismissal that the employer carries the burden of justifying a dismissal. These rules
ensure compliance with the limited security of tenure guarantee the law extends to
probationary employees.
When fixed-term employment is brought into play under the above probationary period
rules, the situation – as in the present case – may at first blush look muddled as fixed-
term employment is in itself a valid employment mode under Philippine law and
jurisprudence. The conflict, however, is more apparent than real when the respective
nature of fixed-term employment and of employment on probationary status are closely
examined.
The fixed-term character of employment essentially refers to the period agreed upon
between the employer and the employee; employment exists only for the duration of the
term and ends on its own when the term expires. In a sense, employment on
probationary status also refers to a period because of the technical meaning "probation"
carries in Philippine labor law – a maximum period of six months, or in the academe, a
period of three years for those engaged in teaching jobs. Their similarity ends there,
however, because of the overriding meaning that being "on probation" connotes, i.e., a
process of testing and observing the character or abilities of a person who is new to a
role or job.
Understood in the above sense, the essentially protective character of probationary
status for management can readily be appreciated. But this same protective character
gives rise to the countervailing but equally protective rule that the probationary period
can only last for a specific maximum period and under reasonable, well-laid and
properly communicated standards. Otherwise stated, within the period of the probation,
any employer move based on the probationary standards and affecting the continuity of
the employment must strictly conform to the probationary rules.
x x x If we pierce the veil, so to speak, of the parties’ so-called fixed-term employment
contracts, what undeniably comes out at the core is a fixed-term contract conveniently
used by the school to define and regulate its relations with its teachers during their
probationary period.39 (Emphasis supplied; italics in the original)
In the same case, this Court has definitively pronounced that "in a situation where the
probationary status overlaps with a fixed-term contract not specifically used for the fixed
term it offers, Article 281 should assume primacy and the fixed-period character of the
contract must give way."40
An example given of a fixed-term contract specifically used for the fixed term it offers is
a replacement teacher or a reliever contracted for a period of one year to temporarily
take the place of a permanent teacher who is on leave. The expiration of the reliever’s
fixed-term contract does not have probationary status implications as he or she was
never employed on probationary basis. This is because his or her employment is for a
specific purpose with particular focus on the term. There exists an intent to end his or
her employment with the school upon expiration of this term.41
However, for teachers on probationary employment, in which case a fixed term contract
is not specifically used for the fixed term it offers, it is incumbent upon the school to
have not only set reasonable standards to be followed by said teachers in determining
qualification for regular employment, the same must have also been communicated to
the teachers at the start of the probationary period, or at the very least, at the start of
the period when they were to be applied. These terms, in addition to those expressly
provided by the Labor Code, would serve as the just cause for the termination of the
probationary contract.1âwphi1 The specific details of this finding of just cause must be
communicated to the affected teachers as a matter of due process.42 Corollarily, should
the teachers not have been apprised of such reasonable standards at the time specified
above, they shall be deemed regular employees.
In Tamson’s Enterprises, Inc. v. Court of Appeals,43 we held that "[t]he law is clear that
in all cases of probationary employment, the employer shall [convey] to the employee
the standards under which he will qualify as a regular employee at the time of his
engagement. Where no standards are made known to the employee at that time, he
shall be deemed a regular employee.
In this case, glaringly absent from petitioners’ evidence are the reasonable standards
that respondent was expected to meet that could have served as proper guidelines for
purposes of evaluating his performance. Nowhere in the Teacher’s Contract 44 could
such standards be found.45 Neither was it mentioned that the same were ever conveyed
to respondent. Even assuming that respondent failed to meet the standards set forth by
CSR and made known to the former at the time he was engaged as a teacher on
probationary status, still, the termination was flawed for failure to give the required
notice to respondent.46 This is because Book VI, Rule I, Section 2 of the IRR of the
Labor Code provides:
Section 2. Security of Tenure. – (a) In cases of regular employment, the employer shall
not terminate the services of an employee except for just or authorized causes as
provided by law, and subject to the requirements of due process.
(b) The foregoing shall also apply in cases of probationary employment;
provided, however, that in such cases, termination of employment due to failure
of the employee to qualify in accordance with the standards of the employer
made known to the former at the time of engagement may also be a ground for
termination of employment.
xxxx
(d) In all cases of termination of employment, the following standards of due
process shall be substantially observed:
xxxx
If the termination is brought about by the completion of a contract or phase thereof, or
by failure of an employee to meet the standards of the employer in the case of
probationary employment, it shall be sufficient that a written notice is served the
employee, within a reasonable time from the effective date of termination. (Emphasis
supplied)
Curiously, despite the absence of standards, Mofada mentioned the existence of
alleged performance evaluations47in respondent’s case. We are, however, in a
quandary as to what could have been the basis of such evaluation, as no evidence were
adduced to show the reasonable standards with which respondent’s performance was
to be assessed or that he was informed thereof. Notably too, none of the supposed
performance evaluations were presented. These flaws violated respondent’s right to
due process. As such, his dismissal is, for all intents and purposes, illegal.
As a matter of due process, teachers on probationary employment, just like all
probationary employees, have the right to know whether they have met the standards
against which their performance was evaluated. Should they fail, they also have the
right to know the reasons therefor.
It should be pointed out that absent any showing of unsatisfactory performance on the
part of respondent, it can be presumed that his performance was satisfactory, especially
taking into consideration the fact that even while he was still more than a year into his
probationary employment, he was already designated Prefect of Discipline. In such
capacity, he was able to uncover the existence of a drug syndicate within the school
and lessen the incidence of drug use therein. Yet despite respondent’s substantial
contribution to the school, petitioners chose to disregard the same and instead
terminated his services; while most of those who were involved in drug activities within
the school were punished with a slap on the wrist as they were merely made to write
letters promising that the incident will not happen again. 48
Mofada would also have us believe that respondent chose to resign as he feared for his
life, thus, the school’s decision not to renew his contract. However, no resignation letter
was presented. Besides, this is contrary to respondent’s act of immediately filing the
instant case against petitioners.
WHEREFORE, the Petition is hereby DENIED. The August 31, 2005 Decision and the
November 10, 2005 Resolution of the Court of Appeals in CA-G.R. SP No. 85188 are
AFFIRMED. The status quo order of this Court is LIFTED.
SO ORDERED.