The Ruling of the Court of Appeals
On 15 March 2002, the Court of Appeals rendered judgment as follows:
WHEREFORE, premises considered, the decision of the NLRC
dated June 11, 1998, as well as its Resolution of February 3, 1999is hereby
REVERSED and SET ASIDE. In lieu thereof, the decision of the Labor Arbiter
dated December 26, 1996 is hereby REINSTATED.
SO ORDERED.[17]
The Court of Appeals ruled that, contrary to the view of the NLRC, the fact
that Anita “had a second thought about her position as a caretaker or domestic
helper as it was not the position she applied for, was not pregnant of bold
manifestation that in fact she had difficulty in adjusting herself to the nature of her
accepted position.” The Court of Appeals stated that neither would Anita’s
“second thoughts” bolster petitioner’s allegation that Anita “misrepresented to her
foreign employer that she knows the house chores.”
The Court of Appeals held that petitioner’s allegation that Anita did not
know her job was incredible. The Court of Appeals stated that the nature of the
work given to Anita “such as car-washing the vehicle of her master, cooking the
meals, housecleaning and babysitting, was too simple and menial for an ordinary
person of average intelligence to easily learn, especially so for Anita, who is a
registered midwife and a family woman.” The Court of Appeals ruled that even
granting that Anita did not know her job, petitioner, who had the duty to evaluate
her qualification, should have rejected her application outright.
The Court of Appeals also ruled that if there is doubt on the credibility of the
evidence presented by the parties, the doubt should be resolved in Anita’s