GR No. 154213

Eastern Mediterranean Maritime Ltd. and Agemar Manning Agency, Inc. vs Estanislao Surio, et al

GR No. 154213

Facts:

MT Seadance is a vessel owned by Eastern Mediterranean Maritime Ltd and manned and operated by Agemar Manning Agency. The same was not in a good working condition and the payment of wages, remittance of allotments, as well as the payment for extra work and extra overtime work were delayed. As MT Seadance docked at a port in Sweden, representatives of International Transport Federation boarded the same. They have found out that wages of its crew members were below the prevailing rates. As a result, they have moved to increase the wages of the said crewmembers. On Dec 23, 1993, the petitioners filed a complaint against the crew members and claimed reimbursement for the increase of wages received.

Issue:

Whether or not it is under the jurisdiction of NLRC to review cases on appeal decided by POEA.

Held:

No, the NLRC has no jurisdiction to review an appeal case decided by POEA. According to Section 28 (b) of the Omnibus Rules and Regulations Implementing the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995, the POEA shall exercise original and exclusive jurisdiction to hear and decide disciplinary action cases and other special cases, which are administrative in character, involving employers, principals, contracting partners and Filipino migrant workers. Since RA No 8042 has been passed into a law after the filing of charges by the petitioner to the respondents, the rule on retroactivity of the laws shall be observed.

As a rule, all laws are prospective in application unless the contrary is expressly provided, or unless the law is procedural or curative in nature. Thus, such law stating that the POEA has the jurisdiction to decide on disciplinary cases shall be observed in the case at bar.