THE Commission on Audit has ordered the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) and Veterans Gold Club (commonly called the Veterans Golf Course or VGC) to pay the claim of 20 workers amounting to P3,694,947.19, representing unpaid benefits and other compensation.
In its eight-page decision released last week, the COA en banc voted 2-1 to grant the workers’ petition, noting that the judgment award has been upheld by the Supreme Court and became final and executory on April 3, 2019.
COA Chairperson Gamaliel Cordoba and Commissioner Mario Lipana affirmed the validity of the claim while Commissioner Roland Café Pondoc dissented, saying the COA does not have jurisdiction over the matter since it had already been ruled upon by the High Tribunal.
The claim alleged that Veterans Golf Course failed to pay the workers’ sick leaves and vacation leaves for 2004 to 2011 totaling P1.41 million.
Likewise, the employees said VGC reduced their work week by one day, depriving them of wages due in the sum of P1.95 million.
The workers, organizing themselves into the Alliance of Democratic Free Labor Organization (ADFLO), filed a case against the VGC at the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) Regional Adjudication Branch (RAB).
Originally, 48 workers of the VGC filed the case with the NLRC but the number was later reduced to 20 after the other 28 failed to sign a Special Power of Attorney.
The NLRC Third Division ruled on October 30, 2017 in favor of the petition and ordered the VGC to pay the balance of the complainant’s sick leaves and vacation leaves. This was appealed by the golf course all the way to the Supreme Court, which upheld the labor arbiter’s findings in favor of the petitioners.
“This Commission finds the petition for money claim partly meritorious. In this case, this Commission holds that the petitioner was able to substantiate its claim based on the submitted documents,” the COA said.
However, it denied the VGC’s claim for an additional P49,815 representing execution and deposit fees, noting that they were not covered by the rulings of the labor arbiter, the NLRC, the Court of Appeals, all the way up to the Supreme Court.
