4/16/2021 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly Time and again we have ruled that where there is no showing of a clear, valid and legal cause for termination of employment, the law considers the case a matter of illegal dismissal. The burden is on the employer to prove that the termination of employment was for a valid and legal cause. For an employee's dismissal to be valid, (a) the dismissal must be for a valid cause and (b) the employee must be afforded due process.[23] A review of the record shows that neither of the two (2) conditions precedent were shown to have been complied with by the private respondents. All that private respondent I.T. did was to rely on its claim that petitioner was repatriated by its foreign principal, respondent Samir Maddah, due to hypertension with nary an evidence to support it. In all termination cases, strict compliance by the employer with the demands of both procedural and substantive due process is a condition sine qua non for the same to be declared valid.[24] Under Section 8, Rule I, Book VI of the Rules and Regulations implementing the Labor Code, for a disease to be a valid ground for the dismissal of the employee, the continued employment of such employee is prohibited by law or prejudicial to his health or the health of his co-employees, there must be a certification by a competent public health authority that the disease is of such nature or at such a stage that it cannot be cured within a period of six (6) months, even with proper medical treatment. This rule was correctly applied by the POEA Adjudication Office in its Decision dated December 29, 1989, to wit: "In so far as the issue of illegal dismissal is concerned, this Office also finds it in the affirmative. This Office in arriving at the aforesaid conclusion, takes into consideration the express provision of the Labor Code [Art. 277, par. (b)] that expressly provides that the burden of proving that the termination was for a valid or authorized cause shall rest on the employer (respondents in the instant case). The defense of complainant's medical problems (alleged hypertension of complainant) interposed by respondents to justify the dismissal of the former is totally bereft of merit. The said defense of respondents is not only uncorroborated by documentary evidence but is also not a just or valid cause for termination of one's employment. While an employer (respondents in this case) may validly terminate the services of an employee who has been found to be suffering from any disease, it is authorized only if his continued employment is prohibited by law or is prejudicial to his health as well as to the health of his co-employees (Art. 284, Labor Code). This is not present in the instant case, for there is no finding from a medical practitioner certifying that complainant is really hypertensive."[25] Since the burden of proving the validity of the dismissal of the employee rests on the employer, the latter should likewise bear the burden of showing that the requisites for a valid dismissal due to a disease have been complied with. In the absence of the required certification by a competent public health authority, this Court has ruled https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/52120 8/12