6/8/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly It is uncontroverted that the company grants incentive bonus for reemployment upon signing for a subsequent period. For radio officers onboard bulk carriers, it shall be 8% of the basic wage per month of actual service. In this case, we find nothing in the record to show that the classification of the vessel to which the petitioner was deployed is a Gas/LPG Tanker, which would make him entitled to 10% instead of 8% of the basic wage as incentive bonus. Thus, the public respondent correctly applied the rate of 8% of the basic wage per month of actual service, the basic wage in this case being the amount stipulated in the contract of employment, i.e., US$929.00, and does not include the stipulated rate for overtime pay. The question now is the application of the provision of the memorandum with respect to the length of actual service. Record shows that after the expiration of the original eight-month employment contract on December 15, 1996, the petitioner was in fact re-employed when his service was extended for another nine (9) months or up to September 1997. This unquestionably entitled him to the incentive bonus for the 8-month period covered by the contract and which was correctly awarded to him by the public respondent NLRC. However, as to the succeeding period, although it was not covered by a written contract, it is unrebutted that the petitioner was actually made to suffer work during that period. Hence, there was a monthly re-employment of the petitioner for the succeeding 9 months. Conformably, since the incentive bonus is given for re-employment upon signing for a subsequent period, for purposes of computing the same, the petitioner is deemed to have been re-employed not only for the 8 months covered by the contract but also for the succeeding 8 months preceding the last month when he was terminated. x x x. xxx xxx xxx As for the claim for backwages or separation pay, we note that these claims were neither raised in the petitioner’s position paper nor in the motion for reconsideration filed before the NLRC; hence, they can no longer be raised for the first time in this petition. x x x.[8] Hence, the instant petition for certiorari based on the following grounds: I. THE HONORABLE COURT OF APPEALS ERRED WHEN IT PLACED THE BURDEN UPON PETITIONER TO PROVE THAT M/V HEROS IS AN LPG/GAS TANKER. II. CONSIDERING THAT PETITIONER HAD WORKED FOR BERGESEN D.Y. PHILIPPINES FOR AND IN BEHALF OF ITS PRINCIPAL BERGESEN D.Y. ASA FOR TEN (10) LONG YEARS ABOARD ITS DIFFERENT VESSELS, PETITIONER SHOULD HAVE BEEN CONSIDERED AS A REGULAR EMPLOYEE BY THE COURT OF APPEALS. III. THE HONORABLE COURT OF APPEALS LIKEWISE ERRED WHEN IT SAID IN ITS DECISION THAT PETITIONER FAILED TO RAISE THE ISSUE OF BACKWAGES AND SEPARATION PAY IN THE MOTION FOR RECONSIDERATION FILED WITH THE NLRC.[9] elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/45621 4/8