Petitioner also points out that in the medical examination report dated 6
September 1996 issued by Angelina ApostolPunzalan Medical Clinic,[15] it is
clearly stated that it was respondent Skills International which recommended him
for physical examination. He argues that the medical clinic would not have
attended to him had it not been for the referral of respondent Skills International as
under Section 3, Rule VII, Book II of the Philippine Overseas Employment
Administration Rules and Regulations Governing Overseas Employment,
[16]
“[m]edical examination of workers for overseas employment shall be conducted
only after the agency and/or its principal shall have interviewed and trade tested or
have pre-qualified the worker for an existing overseas position duly covered by an
approved job order.”[17]
Likewise, in the Standard Employment Contract for Various Skills[18] which
petitioner signed, it is stated that his local placement agency is respondent Skills
International
while
his
principal
in Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia,
is Wallan Al Wallan. Petitioner claims that while he signed and even affixed
his thumbmark on said contract, he avers that he could not explain why no
responsible officer or employee of respondent Skills International signed said
document.
In addition, petitioner maintains that he does not fall within the category
of balik-manggagawa as the term refers to “alandbased contract worker who is on
vacation or on emergency leave, and who is returning to the same work site to
resume his employment.”[19] Obviously then, he should not have been considered
as a balik-manggagawa since he was neither here on vacation nor on emergency
leave; instead, he went back abroad under an entirely new employment contract.
As for the lack of placement fee he paid to respondent Skills International,
petitioner claims that the Labor Arbiter, the NLRC, and the Court of Appeals failed
to take notice of the receipt, written in Saudi Arabian language, showing that his
employer abroad deducted 5,000 Saudi Riyals from his salary as placement fee.[20]