ONE of the primary academic institutions in Davao City is beset with an intra-corporate dispute that forces its employees to run to the Department of Labor and Employment for help so that they can receive their salaries on time.
In a statement furnished to Sunstar Davao, it was revealed that the Philippine Women's College (PWC) of Davao's RCBC employee payroll account and other bank accounts were put on hold effective March 23, affecting the school’s operations, including the payroll of its staff.
The freezing of PWC’s bank accounts stemmed from the intra-corporate dispute about who is the legitimate Board of Trustees that the PWC staff and employees and who are the signatories the banks will follow.
In the statement, RCBC said it had received various documents from two groups “claiming to represent PWC’s Board of Trustees” with one wanting to update the signatories to the accounts while the other advising to just ignore the such request.
RCBC stated that, after carefully considering the available information, it has decided to freeze the PWC’s accounts, including its employees' payroll account, to protect all parties while the intra-corporate dispute is still ongoing.
The bank also stated that should the academic institution need to access its funds while the dispute is pending, the PWC must either seek the assistance of the trial court to resolve the issue or jointly provide written instructions to release funds to a certain person for a specific condition, like for employees’ salaries or for payment of services.
Additionally, the bank stated that it may do such an action (freezing of account) “to protect the accounts or the funds.”
With this, the Personnel Association (PA) of the PWC immediately released a memo on March 28 regarding its course of action on the bank’s freezing of the school’s account. In the memo, the PA also sought Dole’s “potential involvement” citing Dole’s provision in its Labor Code that “No employer shall pay the wage of its employees by means of promissory notes...”
“Therefore, considering the circumstances, it is essential that the Department of Labor and Employment Regional Office 11 (DOLE RO 11) be notified of the current situation for potential involvement.” The memo also stated that the PA had already filed a formal complaint regarding the non-payment of wages before DOLE RO 11 on March 27.
Intra-corporate dispute
The intra-corporate dispute of the PWC allegedly stemmed from two factions of the board of trustees, with one appointing PWC’s president and CEO.
In its press release, PWC said “the once-quiet school has become the center of controversy when a renegade portion of its Board of Trustees (BOT) allegedly appointed a ‘President’ that the employees and stakeholders do not recognize. At the center of this is the self-appointed president, Mr. Emmanuel Canivel, who is also a member of the BOT.”
Emi Englis, one of the Board of Trustees and the institution’s treasurer, said in a phone interview that the faction originated from one of the Board of Trustees' (BOT) expiration of term last year and is due for replacement. He said some of the members of the BOT want to place somebody as one of the BOT but the chairman of the BOT, Ms. Elizabeth San Pedro Lietz, questioned the qualification of the nominees.
However, early this year, when the chairman was not in the country, three members of the BOT, including Mr. Canivel himself, arrived in Davao City and pushed through with appointing Mr. Canivel as the president.
“After that meeting and after that appointment, they already started sending memos to the school... wala man lang gani notice or information na there’s going to be an election or selection of a president,” Englis said.
Englis said the memo shocked the PWC community, especially that as a non-stock, non-profit institution, the major stakeholders are the students, their parents, the staff, the faculty, and the alumni.
Englis also added that Canivel even acted as the chief operating officer (COO), when in fact the president is the chief executive officer, and the chancellor, who is Prof. Vicente Antonio V. Pijano III, is the COO.
“So dapat ang chancellor ang nagma-manage ng day-to-day operations,” he said.
He said the faction of Canivel wanted to meddle in everything, even the database of the school. They also dipped into the account of the school, which the latest is what affected the employees' wages, and “outraged all of us and it’s reasonable.”
Englis explained that the reason for the freezing of the PWC’s bank accounts was that they wanted to change or update the signatories to the bank while the other group wanted the bank to maintain the status quo.
Englis also said that they are waiting for the court’s decision on the quo warranto case filed by Chair Leitz, which will be heard on April 25. The decision of the court will eventually be the basis of the legitimacy of Mr. Canivel’s group and so is his claim for the presidency.
Salaries paid but...
Meantime, according to Englis, as of March 29, the PWC’s RCBC accounts have already been unfrozen.
But one of the employees of PWC, who wants to be identified as part of the neutral group and requests to maintain his anonymity, said only those employees who were under the RCBC employees payroll account have already received their salaries. Those covered by PWC’s other banks’ employees payroll accounts have not yet been paid.
“Hence, yung DOLE conference that is set tomorrow (March 31) would still push through po unless ma-swelduhan yung remaining before 5pm,” the employee, who is also an alumnus of the institution, said.
He said that the non-payment or the delayed payment of their wages is the result of RCBC’s decision to freeze the school’s accounts “with reference to one provision in the terms and conditions of corporate bank accounts,” and not because of an individual or a group’s doing.
He added that he is hoping that both groups must stop misleading the public and they must observe the “proper grievance machinery.”
“Kasi we are supposed to enlighten and to educate, and not to put out the light of logic and reason, lalo na to those whom we serve, the learners po,” he said.
PWC faculty Beauty Gandarosa confirmed to SunStar Davao on Thursday that the majority of the faculty and staff under the RCBC payroll have received their salaries on time.
She said the management filed an appeal to RCBC stating and proving the institution's internal dispute and that the accounts were wrongfully withheld by Canivel's camp.
The bank was able to approve it on time however, around 28 payroll accounts under Metrobank are still frozen as of March 30.
Gandarosa said they aim to do the same actions as RCBC. She said the majority of the Metrobank accounts were of school administrators.
Englis said that the Metrobank employees' payroll account was not put on hold by the bank itself but by Mr. Canivel. The approver of the Metrobank employees' payroll account, Gina Bequiso, is already waiting for Mr. Canivel’s go signal to activate the uploading of the payroll, Englis said. But Mr. Canivel has not yet given his go-signal as of the moment, and this is what the employees are pushing to confer with DOLE today, March 31. (CEA with ICM)
SunStar Davao is open to the side of Mr. Canivel should he need to clarify his side on the matter. As of the moment, SunStar Davao is reaching out to Mr. Canivel.