Title
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. vs. Bolso
Case
G.R. No. 159701
Decision Date
Aug 17, 2007
PLDT employee Romeo Bolso dismissed for serious misconduct after allegedly accepting payment for illegal telephone line installation. Supreme Court upheld dismissal, citing substantial evidence and due process.
dismissal
serious misconduct
substantial evidence
A

Case Summary (G.R. No. 159701)

Factual Background

Bolso worked for PLDT as an installer/repairman until his dismissal in July 1997. The dismissal arose from an incident involving an “illegal extension” of a PLDT telephone line at the residence of PLDT subscriber Samuel Mabunga, who transferred his telephone line rights to Ismael Salazar. The transfer had contractual and practical implications, because Salazar’s line usage later became the subject of a PLDT inquiry.

On 5 February 1996, Mabunga sold the rights to his telephone line to Salazar for P20,000, receiving P15,000 for the transfer. For the installation of this telephone line, Salazar paid P2,500 to a PLDT installer who introduced himself as “Boy Negro,” and paid an additional P2,500 to the installer’s two companions. On 20 May 1996, Salazar wrote PLDT complaining that Mabunga continued to use the telephone line through an extension despite the transfer. Salazar requested PLDT to check the problem and asked for the immediate cutoff of the extension line.

On 28 June 1996, Salazar went to PLDT’s Quality Control and Inspection Division (QCID) office and affirmed that he had paid the amounts to “Boy Negro” and the two companions for installing the telephone line at his residence. During the investigation, Salazar positively identified a photograph of Bolso as that of “Boy Negro.” Salazar then voluntarily executed a Sinumpaang Salaysay describing the circumstances of the illegal extension installation and a Certification stating that the person identified in the photograph was the one who installed the telephone line.

On 29 June 1996, QCID personnel inspected the installation at Salazar’s residence and confirmed that Mabunga was using the telephone line through an outside extension installed at Salazar’s house. PLDT informed Salazar and Mabunga that the installation was unofficial and invited them to the QCID office. Thereafter, PLDT issued an inter-office request for investigation of Bolso’s alleged participation.

PLDT Investigation and Salazar’s Identification

On 23 July 1996, PLDT issued an inter-office memo requesting Bolso’s appearance at the Sampaloc Office for investigation, requiring him to appear together with his immediate supervisor or union council representative. On 26 July 1996, Salazar and Bolso appeared before QCID. Salazar reaffirmed his earlier Sinumpaang Salaysay and Certification. More importantly, Salazar positively picked out and identified Bolso from among those present as the installer of the unofficial extension line. Bolso denied the allegations against him.

After the investigation, Bolso submitted what appeared to be a recantation of Salazar’s statements. The letter dated 5 August 1996 asserted that Salazar did not personally know Bolso and that Bolso was mistaken for “Boy Negro,” allegedly due to Salazar’s confusion and conscience. PLDT did not credit this recantation. Before PLDT’s final action, Bolso’s union requested withdrawal of the complaint, and later Bolso’s counsel demanded dismissal and the release of benefits under PLDT’s early retirement/redundancy program.

PLDT then terminated Bolso effective 20 June 1997, citing serious misconduct based on its assessment that Salazar’s prior statements established Bolso’s culpability.

Labor Arbiter Proceedings

On 15 August 1997, Bolso filed a complaint with the Labor Arbiter for illegal dismissal, backwages, and damages, docketed as NLRC NCR Case No. 00-08-05842-97. The Labor Arbiter dismissed the complaint on 6 August 1998 for lack of merit.

The Labor Arbiter held that Bolso’s evidence was “too speculative and conjectural.” It found Bolso’s denial of the charges of serious misconduct, fraud, and breach of trust unsupported by convincing evidence. The decision acknowledged that there was no direct evidence that Bolso exacted money in consideration of the installation. Still, it found “substantial evidence” against Bolso for serious misconduct.

NLRC Appeal

Bolso appealed to the NLRC. The NLRC reversed the Labor Arbiter and ordered Bolso’s reinstatement with full backwages. It held that PLDT failed to prove that Bolso committed the infraction. It regarded Salazar’s recantation as “totally” establishing Bolso’s innocence. The NLRC also noted that this was the first time PLDT charged Bolso with an offense and reasoned that it would have been foolhardy for Bolso to risk losing his livelihood for a “measly amount of P2,500.”

The NLRC further considered that Salazar’s recantation letter was voluntarily given, allegedly in Salazar’s own handwriting and in a language well known to him. It additionally ruled that Bolso was denied due process.

Court of Appeals Disposition

PLDT sought certiorari before the Court of Appeals to nullify the NLRC decisions. On 27 November 2002, the Court of Appeals dismissed PLDT’s petition. PLDT’s motion for reconsideration was denied on 19 August 2003.

The Court of Appeals sustained the NLRC’s conclusion that “special circumstances exist” that raised serious doubt as to Bolso’s accountability. It treated Salazar’s recantation as giving “some truth” to Bolso’s innocence, and it accepted Salazar’s explanation that confusion and indignation caused him to implicate an innocent person. It also found that the recantation was a declaration against Salazar’s interest under Sec. 38, Rule 130 of the Rules of Court.

The Court of Appeals also found no evidence that Bolso committed a breach attributed to him, stating that aside from Salazar’s alleged inadvertence, the incident involving Bolso was unsupported by relevant and convincing evidence. It further reasoned that even assuming serious misconduct, dismissal was too harsh given Bolso’s long service and the alleged first offense.

As to procedure, the Court of Appeals ruled that there was no hearing adequate to afford Bolso a reasonable opportunity to confront his accuser and defend himself. It therefore held that Bolso’s dismissal was illegal for lack of due process.

The Issue

The central issue was whether Bolso’s dismissal for serious misconduct was lawful.

Legal Basis and Reasoning

The Court began with the controlling principle that an employer may terminate employment only for a just cause under the Labor Code, and that serious misconduct constitutes one of the enumerated just causes under Art. 282. Misconduct, for this purpose, requires improper conduct amounting to a transgression of established rules or dereliction of duty with wrongful intent, and it must be grave enough to be more than trivial. Even when serious, the misconduct must be connected with the employee’s work. The Court emphasized that dismissal due to serious misconduct must be supported by substantial evidence, defined as relevant evidence adequate to support a conclusion that a reasonable mind might accept.

In this case, the Court treated the governing company rule as clear: PLDT installers, repairmen, and linemen provided services but could not collect or receive personal fees for such services. Violation of that rule constituted serious misconduct.

The Court then examined whether PLDT proved that Bolso accepted payment for installation of an unauthorized PLDT telephone line extension. It held that the records contained substantial evidence. Salazar’s initial statements to PLDT QCID narrated that he gave Bolso P2,500 for the installation of the telephone line, which turned out to be an illegal extension line. Salazar repeated similar narratives during the course of the investigation, including his immediate and unhesitating identification of Bolso’s photograph at the QCID office. During the 26 July 1996 investigation, Salazar faced Bolso and pointed to him as the installer of the illegal extension line. The Court also relied on Salazar’s statement made in response to questioning that, when Salazar paid money, it was Bolso whom he permitted “inside the house,” together with the two companions.

The Court acknowledged Bolso’s recourse to Salazar’s subsequent retraction. The Court framed the question as whether Salazar’s later recantation convincingly proved Bolso’s non-participation. It answered in the negative.

Drawing from a similar prior case involving PLDT and one of its installers, the Court held that retraction affidavits may be mere afterthoughts executed out of compassion to help the accused avoid consequences. It also underscored the broader evidentiary rule that retractions are generally treated with disfavor. Courts should not automatically exclude an original statement solely because a witness recants. They must assess which statement deserves credence by comparing the original and the new statements and applying general evidence rules.

Applying that approach here, the Court noted that Salazar’s recantation did not expressly repudiate the fact that he paid Bolso P2,500. The recantation letter attacked Bolso’s identity as “Boy Negro,” not the payment itself. Thus, Salazar’s original statement that Bolso received P2,500 remained undisputed. Even assuming a full repudiation, the Court noted additional deficiencies in the recantation’s evidentiary value: Salazar did not swear or subscribe to the recantation; he never identified it as his own or affirmed its veracity; Bolso submitted the letter to PLDT; and Bolso offered no reason to explain why Salazar first imputed the role to him.

The Court further observed that Bolso denied knowing any motive Salazar might have had to accuse him. During the investigation, Bolso stated that he did not know Salazar and that he did not frequent the area where the line was installed. When questioned about why Salazar would have pointed him out among PLDT employees at Sampaloc as the one who installed the telephones at that residence, Bolso admitted he did not know the reason.

On equities, the Court acknowledged that Bolso’s dismissal affected his livelihood and that the alleged infraction would be his first in about fifteen years of service. Still, it held it could not ignore Salazar’s positive identification of Bolso as the installer of the il

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