G.R. No. 172342 http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/jurisprudence/2009/july2009/172342.htm is service award which was already paid by MMG each time respondents contract ended. Petitioner insists that prescription barred respondents claim for service award as the complaint was filed one year and seven months after the sixth contract ended. Petitioner alleges that the Court of Appeals erred in ruling that respondents July 6, 1999 claim interrupted the running of the prescriptive period. Such ruling is contrary to Article 13 of the Saudi Labor Law which provides that no case or claim relating to any of the rights provided for under said law shall be heard after the lapse of 12 months from the date of the termination of the contract. Respondent counters that he is entitled to longevity pay under the provisions of the Saudi Labor Law and quotes extensively the decision of the Court of Appeals. He points out that petitioner has not refuted the Labor Arbiters finding that MMG offered him longevity pay of US$12,640.33 before his one-month vacation in the Philippines in 1999. Thus, he submits that such offer indeed exists as he sees no reason for MMG to offer the benefit if no law grants it. After a careful study of the case, we are constrained to reverse the Court of Appeals. We find that respondents service award under Article 87 of the Saudi Labor Law has already been paid. Our computation will show that the severance pay received by respondent was his service award. Article 87 clearly grants a service award. It reads: Article 87 Where the term of a labor contract concluded for a specified period comes to an end or where the employer cancels a contract of unspecified period, the employer shall pay to the workman an award for the period of his service to be computed on the basis of half a months pay for each of the first five years and one months pay for each of the subsequent years. The last rate of pay shall be taken as basis for the computation of the award. For fractions of a year, the workman shall be entitled to an award which is proportionate to his service period during that year. Furthermore, the workman shall be entitled to the service award provided for at the beginning of this article in the following cases: A. B. C. If he is called to military service. If a workman resigns because of marriage or childbirth. If the workman is leaving the work as a result of a force majeure beyond his [17] control. (Emphasis supplied.) Respondent, however, has called the benefit other names such as long service award and longevity pay. On the other hand, petitioner claimed that the service award is the same 5 of 11 1/28/2016 11:55 AM