G.R. No. 167614
http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/jurisprudence/2009/march2009/167614.htm
employment of OFWs by mitigating the solidary liability of placement agencies, such callous and
cavalier rationale will have to be rejected. There can never be a justification for any form of
government action that alleviates the burden of one sector, but imposes the same burden on another
sector, especially when the favored sector is composed of private businesses such as placement
agencies, while the disadvantaged sector is composed of OFWs whose protection no less than the
Constitution commands. The idea that private business interest can be elevated to the level of a
compelling state interest is odious.
Moreover, even if the purpose of the subject clause is to lessen the solidary liability of
placement agencies vis-a-vis their foreign principals, there are mechanisms already in place that can be
employed to achieve that purpose without infringing on the constitutional rights of OFWs.
The POEA Rules and Regulations Governing the Recruitment and Employment of
Land-Based Overseas Workers, dated February 4, 2002, imposes administrative disciplinary measures
on erring foreign employers who default on their contractual obligations to migrant workers and/or
their Philippine agents. These disciplinary measures range from temporary disqualification to
preventive suspension. The POEA Rules and Regulations Governing the Recruitment and
Employment of Seafarers, dated May 23, 2003, contains similar administrative disciplinary measures
against erring foreign employers.
Resort to these administrative measures is undoubtedly the less restrictive means of aiding local
placement agencies in enforcing the solidary liability of their foreign principals.
Thus, the subject clause in the 5th paragraph of Section 10 of R.A. No. 8042 is violative of the
right of petitioner and other OFWs to equal protection.
Further, there would be certain misgivings if one is to approach the declaration of the
unconstitutionality of the subject clause from the lone perspective that the clause directly violates state
[131]
policy on labor under Section 3,
Article XIII of the Constitution.
[132]
While all the provisions of the 1987 Constitution are presumed self-executing,,
there are some
[133]
which this Court has declared not judicially enforceable, Article XIII being one,
particularly
Section 3 thereof, the nature of which, this Court, in Agabon v. National Labor Relations
[134]
has described to be not self-actuating:
Commission,
Thus, the constitutional mandates of protection to labor and security of tenure may be deemed as
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