expressly authorizing the respondent to file the said suit for and in their behalf. We note
that, under its Articles of Incorporation, the respondent was organized for the
purposes inter alia of promoting and supporting the growth and development of the
manpower recruitment industry, both in the local and international levels; providing,
creating and exploring employment opportunities for the exclusive benefit of its general
membership; enhancing and promoting the general welfare and protection of Filipino
workers; and, to act as the representative of any individual, company, entity or
association on matters related to the manpower recruitment industry, and to perform
other acts and activities necessary to accomplish the purposes embodied therein. The
respondent is, thus, the appropriate party to assert the rights of its members, because it
and its members are in every practical sense identical. The respondent asserts that the
assailed provisions violate the constitutional rights of its members and the officers and
employees thereof. The respondent is but the medium through which its individual
members seek to make more effective the expression of their voices and the redress of
their grievances.[19]
However, the respondent has no locus standi to file the petition for and in behalf of
unskilled workers. We note that it even failed to implead any unskilled workers in its
petition. Furthermore, in failing to implead, as parties-petitioners, the eleven licensed
and registered recruitment agencies it claimed to represent, the respondent failed to
comply with Section 2 of Rule 63[20] of the Rules of Court. Nevertheless, since the
eleven licensed and registered recruitment agencies for which the respondent filed the
suit are specifically named in the petition, the amended petition is deemed amended to
avoid multiplicity of suits.[21]
The Assailed Order and Writ of
Preliminary Injunction Is Mooted
By Case Law
The respondent justified its plea for injunctive relief on the allegation in its amended
petition that its members are exposed to the immediate and irreparable danger of being
deprived of their right to a livelihood and other constitutional rights without due process,
on its claim that a great number of duly licensed recruitment agencies have stopped or
suspended their operations for fear that (a) their officers and employees would be
prosecuted under the unjust and unconstitutional penal provisions of Rep. Act No. 8042
and meted equally unjust and excessive penalties, including life imprisonment, for illegal
recruitment and large scale illegal recruitment without regard to whether the recruitment
agencies involved are licensed and/or authorized; and, (b) if the members of the
respondent, which are licensed and authorized, decide to continue with their
businesses, they face the stigma and the curse of being labeled “illegal recruiters.” In
granting the respondent’s plea for a writ of preliminary injunction, the trial court held,
without stating the factual and legal basis therefor, that the enforcement of Rep. Act No.
8042, pendente lite, would cause grave and irreparable injury to the respondent until the
case is decided on its merits.