The Supreme Court has rejected the payment of additional allowances worth P8.5 billion for personnel of the National Power Corp.
In a 44-page decision, the SC overturned and set aside the November 2008 decision of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court which awarded the additional cost of living allowance and amelioration allowance to members of the Napocor employees’ unions.
The high court made permanent the temporary restraining order it issued in 2009 against the execution of the RTC order mandating the payment of the additional COLA and AA from the period of July 1, 1989 to March 16, 1999.
The SC ruled that that the lower court committed error in granting the petition for mandamus filed by the unions, explaining that “money claims and judgments against the government must first be filed with the Commission on Audit.”
“Trial courts have already been strongly cautioned against the issuance of writs of execution in cases involving the disbursement of public funds in Supreme Court Administrative Circular No.10-2000,” the SC decision penned by Associate Justice Marvic Leonen held.
According to the tribunal, the lower court “should have been more prudent in granting the immediate execution, considering that the execution of the judgment award involves the payment of almost P8.5 billion in public funds.”
The high court issued the ruling, which was released only recently, upon petition by the office of the solicitor general in its mandate as “tribune of the people.”
The case stemmed from a petition for mandamus filed by the National Power Corporation Employees Consolidated Union (NECU) and the National Power Corporation Employees and Workers Union (NEWU) before the QC RTC.
The unions sought the immediate release of the additional COLA and AA to their members as they invoked Republic Act No. 6758 (Compensation and Position Classification Act of 1989), which standardized the benefits of employees—including those in government-owned and-controlled corporations—effective July 1, 1989.
The law also provided that all allowances and other additional compensation not otherwise stated “shall be deemed included” in the prescribed standardized salary rates.
In Nov. 2008, the trial court granted the petition and ordered the release of the additional allowances. But the SC issued the TRO in April 2009.
The high court, however, took eight years to resolve the case on its merits.