8/23/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly NLRC when the latter did not grant the petition to annul the December 12, 2012 Order; and (c) in validating the manner by which the monetary award was converted from Irish Pound to the Euro.[23] For her part, Josefa points out in her Comment[24] that the Euro currency had already replaced the Irish Pound in Ireland at the time the Decision in the illegal dismissal case became final and executory. She considers this change in currency as a supervening fact or event that authorized the Labor Arbiter to make modifications on the money judgment even on execution.[25] Replying, Sameer advances the notion that a modification of the judgment is indeed allowed in exceptional circumstances but not where the modification is made in a writ of execution.[26] It reiterates the elementary rule that a writ of execution must conform to the dispositive portion of the decision, otherwise the execution is void if it is in excess of and beyond the original judgment.[27] Verily, the focal issue to be addressed in this case is whether or not the original monetary award in the final Decision may, by the ensuing writ of execution, be legally re-computed and translated from Irish Pound to the Euro. As this Court responds in the affirmative, it hereby finds the subject writ of execution to be fully in order. We preface the disquisition with the necessary dissection of the final judgment rendered in the unlawful termination case between Sameer and Gutierrez. Fundamental is the rule that the dispositive portion of a judgment, order or decision is what determines and declares the rights and obligations of the parties to a dispute as against each other. It is the dispositive portion that must be enforced to make for a valid execution, and a judgment must be implemented according to its letter. Except in well-recognized exceptions, a final judgment, order or decision may not be validly altered, amended or modified even if it is meant to correct a perceptibly erroneous conclusion of fact or law. This, because any insertion, change or addition to the dispositive portion violates the rule on immutability of judgments.[28] A case for illegal dismissal or unlawful termination - which is the underlying case in this petition - is one that relates purely to the status of the parties. Hence, the decision or ruling therein is essentially declaratory of the rights and obligations of the parties, and the monetary award that flows from the declared status, such as payment of separation pay and backwages, is but a necessary and legal consequence of the said declaration. [29] A look at the dispositive portion of affirmative decisions rendered in illegal dismissal cases tells that it is always comprised of two distinct parts: first is the definitive finding of illegal dismissal and the incidental monetary awards sanctioned by law in such case and, second, is the assessment and computation of what the first part of the disposition has already established. The second part, being merely a computation of what the first part of the decision has already pronounced, may, by its nature, be re-computed.[30] The Court takes notice that Ireland joined the European Union in January 1, 1973[31] and, in January 1999, became one of the Euro Area member-states that began elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/65086 3/8