A resolution authorizing Bacolod Mayor Monico Puentevella to sign the compromise agreement between the City of Bacolod and the two contractual teachers of the Bacolod City College, for the renewal of their contract of services, was approved by the Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod yesterday.

Their contracts had not been renewed by the Puentevella administration.

Under the agreement, Susan Grandeza and Rosalia Lorilla will agree to dismiss the case (SCA Case No. 11-13835) they filed against the BCC Board of Trustees before Regional Trial Court Branch 46.

The city will also cause the dismissal of the case for certiorari filed before the Court of Appeals against them.

The compromise agreement states that the service contracts of Grandeza and Lorilla were not among the signed contract of services endorsed by former Mayor Evelio Leonardia to the SP for ratification.

It said that since the Mayor did not sign their contract of services, there was no full execution for the years 2011 to 2013. In the absence on contract of services, the city is not legally bound to pay petitioners of their claim for compensation for such years.

Both parties agreed that the contractual teachers will be rehired to their previous teaching position at the BCC for the 2014 (Jan. 1 to Dec. 31) subject to the authority of the SP, without payment of claim for back wages, on grounds that they have no contract of services for years 2011 to 2013.

For the renewal of their contract, petitioners agreed to comply with all the requirements set by the Commission on Higher Education and Civil Service Commission on the qualifications for their positions.

In the agreement, Puentevella is represented by City Legal Officer Sarah Villamor, while Grandeza and Lorilla are represented by Jerry Basiao.

On February 27 the Court of Appeals Nineteenth Division granted the petition for certiorari filed by the Board of Trustees of the BCC, led by its chairman former Mayor and now Bacolod Rep. Evelio Leonardia, in the complaint for mandamus and damages filed by Grandeza and Lorilla.

It also ordered annulled and set aside the orders of the Regional Trial Court Branch 46 dated March 12 and May 30, 2012 in Civil Case No. 11-13835 and that a new one be entered dismissing the petition for mandamus and damages filed by the contractual teachers.

The teachers filed the petition before RTC Branch 46 against Leonardia, as chairman of the BCC Board of Trustees, former Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson, former City Administrator Rogelio Balo, in his capacity as alleged alternate chairman, Ma. Johanna Ann Rabago-Bayoneta as college administrator, members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod and acting SP secretary Helen Legaspi asking the Court to compel the respondents to reinstate them.

On Nov. 21, 2011, Leonardia, et al, filed a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction of the trial court over the case, failure to exhaust administrative remedy, and inapplicability of the remedy of mandamus.

They said the Civil Service Commission has jurisdiction to try the case and cancelled the premature invocation before the regular court.

The Court issued an order denying their entreaty for dismissal of the case.

FATAL

In its order, the Court of Appeals said filing of a petition for mandamus and damages before the trial court by the teachers was fatal, as they should have brought the matter to the CSC which has primary jurisdiction over the case.

The CA said it also found that Lorilla was not hired as instructor by Leonardia because of her mediocre teaching performance, based on the Teachers’ Behavioral Inventory Records, and by the evaluation of numerous classes and students, that showed her to be an inferior teacher.

Grandeza, meanwhile, had violated school policy for being habitually late in attending her classes, and absent without the knowledge and permission of the College administration, as well as falsification of Daily Time Record, the CA noted.

The Court of Appeals also said it found the trial court to have committed grave abuse of discretion when it refused to dismiss the petition for non-exhaustion of administrative remedies.

WITHIN BOUNDS OF LAW

“In the case at bench, the discretion was aptly exercised by the City Mayor within the bounds of law and cannot be subject of mandamus because there is no entitled right by which the teachers were unlawfully excluded,” it said.

The decision of the Court of Appeals dated Feb. 27, 2014, was signed by Associate Justice Carmelita Salandanan-Manahan, and concurred in by Associate Justices Ramon Paul Hernando and Ma. Luisa Quijano-Padilla.*CGS

back to top