In the instant case, the alleged Employment Contract, Annex “A” for the
complainant (herein petitioner) appears to be one which is not perfected by herein
parties, because said contract does not bear the signatures of the respondents or
any of their authorized representatives. It only bears the signature
and thumbmark of the complainant. On its face, the Employment Contract readily
shows that respondent agency has neither participated nor is it a [privy] to any
party who executed the contract binding it to the terms and conditions of the
same.
Even in the Complainant’s Overseas Employment Certificate No. 144592A, the name of respondent agency does not appear to be the one that recruited and
deployed the complainant. Likewise, the Balikbayan Info Sheet of complainant
does not indicated that herein respondent agency is the contracting agency in
the Philippines. x x x.
Complainant failed to submit evidence to disprove the allegations of the
[respondents] that they neither participated in the contract of employment of
complainant (Annex “A” for the complainant) nor were they privy to the terms
and conditions appearing therein. The evidence submitted are not sufficient to
hold respondent agency liable. The copy of the receipt for the alleged placement
fee was not issued by the respondent agency but by the employer of complainant
which is not its accredited principal – another fact which was
nevercontroverted by the complainant. This being the case, complainant has no
cause of action against herein respondent and therefore, his money claims could
not prosper in the instant case.
The Solidary Liability under Section [60] of the Omnibus Rules
Implementing the Migrant Workers and Overseas and Filipino Act of 1995, will
only apply if there is an existing valid contract and signed by the parties
concerned.[30]
To this, we add our own observations. Petitioner insists that he does not
qualify as a balik-manggagawa as the term is defined under the law. Nevertheless,
it does not escape us that in his pleadings,[31] he asserts that respondent Skills
International handled his deployment as a balik-manggagawa to expedite his
deployment abroad. In addition, he never denied having filled-up the entries in
the Balik-Manggagawa Information Sheet leaving the portion pertaining to the
name of the placement or recruitment agency blank. To our mind, it is clear that
petitioner utilizes the Balik-Manggagawa program of the government whenever it
is convenient for him. Thus, he availed himself of said program in order to fasttrack his deployment abroad and yet now that said Info Sheet is being used against