Almirante: Power of selection as an element to employer-employee relationship

IN 1999, respondent Ricardo R. Villaflor Jr. became a missionary sponsored by Bishop Shinji Amari of the Abiko Baptist Church (BSAABC). He was appointed as an instructor at the Shinji Amari & Missionary Baptist Institute and Seminary (MBIS), petitioner, effective June 1999.

In a letter dated Nov. 24, 2011, respondent was informed of his removal as a missionary of the Abiko Baptist Church, cancellation of his American Baptist Association’s recommendation as a national missionary and exclusion of his membership in the Abiko Baptist Church in Japan. Thus, he filed a complaint for illegal dismissal against petitioners.

Petitioners denied respondent was their employee. On the other hand, respondent insisted on the existence of employer-employee relationship alleging among others, the presence of the element of selection of employee.

Does this claim find merit?

Ruling: No.

First, the Labor Arbiter (LA) and the Court of Appeals anchored their findings of employer-employee relationship on the appointment paper presented by respondent. This evidence, however, refers to his appointment as an instructor, as well as his duties and responsibilities as such; but, to emphasize, respondent was removed as a missionary of Abiko Baptist Church, not as an instructor of MBIS. There is no evidence or allegation to show that respondent’s status as a missionary is the same or dependent on his appointment as an instructor of MBIS. True, the removal as a missionary may have affected respondent’s status as instructor of MBIS, but the Court is not convinced that there was an illegal dismissal.

In this relation, we find the statement of the LA, that respondent’s membership with Abiko Baptist Church of Japan as merely incidental to his main duties and responsibilities as an instructor, misplaced. On the contrary, it is more appropriate to say that being an instructor of MBIS was part of respondent’s mission work as a missionary/minister of BSAABC.

Respondent’s removal as a missionary of Abiko Baptist Church is different from his status as an instructor of MBIS. The mission policy agreement shows that the mission was accepted by respondent as early as Sept. 15, 1998, while the appointment as an instructor was made on a different instrument, an appointment paper made effective in June 1999. These two instruments establish two different positions held by respondent, and means that being a missionary of BSAABC is separate from being an instructor of MBIS, though they may be completely related.

Be that as it may, petitioners’ unrebutted claim that respondent voluntarily excused himself sometime in 2007 from teaching in MBIS, due to the distance of the school from his missionary work in San Carlos City, raises doubt on the allegation of illegal dismissal. (Bishop Shinji Amari of Abiko Baptist Church, et al. vs. Ricardo R. Villaflor Jr., G.R. 224521, Feb.17, 2020).

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