4/30/2021 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly the riding public." This prompted respondent driver to file on July 29, 1980 a formal complaint with the Ministry of Labor and Employment for illegal dismissal against Baliwag Transit praying for reinstatement with back wages and emergency cost of living allowance. The complaint was dismissed by the regional director on the ground of prescription under Art. 291 of the Labor Code. This was reversed by then Labor and Employment Minister Ople. On appeal to this Court, we ruled that the action had not prescribed, viz: “. . . (T)he antecedent question that has to be settled is the date when the cause of action accrued and from which the period shall commence to run. The parties disagree on this date. The contention of the petitioner is that it should be August 10, 1974, when the collission occurred. The private respondent insists it is May 10, 1980, when his demand for reinstatement was rejected by the petitioner. It is settled jurisprudence that a cause of action has three elements, to wit, (1) a right in favor of the plaintiff by whatever means and under whatever law it arises or is created; (2) an obligation on the part of the named defendant to respect or not to violate such right; and (3) an act or omission on the part of such defendant violative of the right of the plaintiff or constituting a breach of the obligation of the defendant to the plaintiff. The problem in the case at bar is with the third element as the first two are deemed established. We hold that the private respondent's right of action could not have accrued from the mere fact of the occurrence of the mishap on August 10, 1974, as he was not considered automatically dismissed on that date. At best, he was deemed suspended from his work, and not even by positive act of the petitioner but as a result of the suspension of his driver's license because of the accident. There was no apparent disagreement then between (respondent driver) Hughes and his employer. As the private respondent was the petitioner's principal witness in its complaint for damages against the Philippine National Railways, we may assume that Baliwag Transit and Hughes were on the best of terms when the case was being tried. Hence, there existed no justification at that time for the private respondent to demand reinstatement and no opportunity warrant (sic) either for the petitioner to reject that demand. We agree with private respondent that May 10, 1980, is the date when his cause of action accrued, for it was then that the petitioner denied his demand for reinstatement and so committed that act or omission "constituting a breach of the obligation of the defendant to the plaintiff." The earlier requests by him having been warded off with indefinite promises, and the private respondent not yet having decided to assert his right, his cause of action could not be said to have then already accrued. The issues had not yet been joined, so to https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/52537 7/9