Dominador A. Almirante
Labor case digest

RESPONDENTS were among 21 Filipino seamen hired by petitioner NFD International Manning Agents, Inc. (NFD) to work on board the chemical tanker M/T Lady Helena. On February 11, 1997 while the vessel was at island View Port, Durban, South Africa, Ship Master Captain Steiner Andersen dismissed them from the service.

They were charged for mutiny, insubordination, desertion and conspiracy for refusing to join the vessel in its next trip.

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There was a disagreement between Capt. Andersen and Engine Fitter Castillo who refused to resume his work in the Engine Room wherein the Filipino crew, including petitioners, sided with Castillo. Was the dismissal justified?

Ruling: No.

Indeed, there is no record in the logbook or journal of the ship to indicate that the 21 Filipino seamen, including herein private respondents who were terminated from their employment, threatened to cease and desist from working and to abandon their vessel as a result of the misunderstanding that happened between the Ship Master and a Filipino crew member.

Petitioners’ claim that private respondents and their fellow Filipino seamen were guilty of conspiracy in committing mutiny, insubordination, attempting to desert their vessel and refusing to sail with the vessel is not supported by substantial evidence.

Aside from the communications, through telex messages, sent by representatives of petitioner Vulcanus and the President and General Manager of NFD, no competent documentary proof was presented to substantiate the charges against private respondents and the other Filipino seamen. No record of any hearing or investigation was presented.

Moreover, petitioners did not present the Ship Master or any member of the ship’s crew inorder to validate or verify the truth regarding the charge against the 21 Filipino seamen.

All that were presented by petitioners were allegations which they claimed to have gathered from information provided by the Ship Master that herein private respondents and their fellow Filipino seamen were guilty of the various acts of which they were accused to have committed. (NFD International Manning Agents & A/S Vulcanus Oslo vs. NLRC et. al. G.R. No. 165389, October 17, 2008).