G.R. No. 152318 http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/jurisprudence/2009/april2009/152318.htm In truth, private respondents were unable to adduce any evidence to substantiate their claim that GTZ was a private corporation, and the Labor Arbiter acted rashly in accepting such claim without explanation. But neither has GTZ supplied any evidence defining its legal nature beyond that of the bare descriptive implementing agency. There is no doubt that the 1991 Agreement designated GTZ as the implementing agency in behalf of the German government. Yet the catch is that such term has no precise definition that is responsive to our concerns. Inherently, an agent acts in behalf of a principal, and the GTZ can be said to act in behalf of the German state. But that is as far as implementing agency could take us. The term by itself does not supply whether GTZ is incorporated or unincorporated, whether it is owned by the German state or by private interests, whether it has juridical personality independent of the German government or none at all. GTZ itself provides a more helpful clue, inadvertently, through its own official Internet website. [46] In the Corporate Profile section of the English language version of its site, GTZ describes itself as follows: As an international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations, the federally owned Deutsche Gesellschaft fr Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH supports the German Government in achieving its development-policy objectives. It provides viable, forward-looking solutions for political, economic, ecological and social development in a globalised world. Working under difficult conditions, GTZ promotes complex reforms and change processes. Its corporate objective is to improve peoples living conditions on a sustainable basis. GTZ is a federal enterprise based in Eschborn near Frankfurt am Main. It was founded in 1975 as a company under private law. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is its major client. The company also operates on behalf of other German ministries, the governments of other countries and international clients, such as the European Commission, the United Nations and the World Bank, as well as on behalf of private enterprises. GTZ works on a public-benefit basis. All surpluses generated are channeled [sic] back into its own [47] international cooperation projects for sustainable development. GTZs own website elicits that petitioner is federally owned, a federal enterprise, and founded in 1975 as a company under private law. GTZ clearly has a very meaningful relationship with the Federal Republic of Germany, which apparently owns it. At the same time, it appears that GTZ was actually organized not through a legislative public charter, but under private law, in the same way that Philippine corporations can be organized under the Corporation Code even if fully owned by the Philippine government. This self-description of GTZ in its own official website gives further cause for pause in adopting petitioners argument that GTZ is entitled to immunity from suit because it is an implementing agency. The above-quoted statement does not dispute the characterization of GTZ as an implementing agency of the Federal Republic of Germany, yet it bolsters the notion that as a 12 of 19 1/26/2016 4:07 PM