4/6/2021 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly the parties executed an Addendum with an agreement that said Addendum shall form of employment. But respondents cancelled petitioner's embarkation and informed him that he would not be deployed because of his existing medical condition which he failed to disclose. Thus, petitioner was not able to leave even though he duly passed the PEME and was declared fit for sea service. In the instant case, there is no doubt that there was already a perfected contract of employment between petitioner and respondents. The contract had passed the negotiation stage or "the time the prospective contracting parties manifest their interest in the contract."[11] It had reached the perfection stage or the so-called " birth of the contract" as it was clearly shown that the essential elements of a contract, i.e., consent, object, and cause, were all present at the time of its constitution. Petitioner and Fetero, respondents' Crewing Manager, freely entered into the contract of employment, affixed their signatures thereto and assented to the terms and conditions of the contract (consent), under which petitioner binds himself to render service (object) to respondents on board the domestic vessel " M/V Meiling 11" for the gross monthly salary of P30,000.00 (cause). An examination of the terms and conditions agreed upon by the parties will show that their relationship as employer and employee is encapsulated in the perfected contract of employment. Thus, by virtue of said contract, respondents and petitioner as s u m ed obligations which pertain to those of an employer and an employee. Under Section D of the Addendum, " the employment relationship between the Employer on one hand and the Seaman on the other shall commence once the Master has issued boarding confirmation to the seaman." Relying on this provision, the respondents insist that there is no employer employee relationship between them and petitioner and that the labor arbiter had no jurisdiction over the petitioner's complaint. True, the parties to a contract are free to adopt such stipulations, clauses, terms and conditions as they may deem convenient provided such contractual stipulations should not be contrary to law, morals, good customs, public order or public policy.[12] But such is not the case here . The stipulation contained in Section D of the Addendum is a condition which holds in suspense the performance of the respective obligations of petitioner and respondents under the contract of employment, or the onset of their employment relations. It is a condition solely dependent on the will or whim of respondents since the commencement of the employment relations is at the discretion or prerogative of the latter's master of the ship through the issuance of a boarding confirmation to the petitioner. The Court in Naga Telephone Co., Inc. v. Court of Appeals[13] referred to this kind of condition as a "potestative condition," the fulfillment of which depends exclusively upon the will of the debtor, in which case , the conditional obligation is void. Article 1182 of the Civil Code of the Philippines reads: Art. 1182. When the fulfillment of the condition depends upon the sole will of the debtor, the conditional obligation shall be void. If it depends upon chance or upon the will of a third person, the obligations hall take effect in conformity with the provisions of this Code. https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/65999 4/8