4/20/2021 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly It must be borne in mind that local private employment agencies, before they can commence recruiting workers for their foreign principal, must submit with the POEA a formal appointment or agency contract executed by the foreign based employer empowering the local agent to sue and be sued jointly and solidarily with the principal or foreign-based employer for any of the violations of the recruitment agreement and contract of employment.[17] Considering that the local private employment agency may sue on behalf of its foreign principal on the basis of its contractual undertakings submitted to the POEA, there is no reason why the said agency cannot likewise sign or execute a certification of non-forum shopping for its own purposes and/or on behalf of its foreign principal. It must likewise be stressed that the rationale behind the requirement that the petitioners or parties to the action themselves must execute the certification of nonforum shopping is that the said petitioners or parties are in the best position to know of the matters required by the Rules of Court in the said certification.[18] Such requirement is not circumvented and is substantially complied with when, as in this case, the local private employment agency signs the said certification alone. It is the local private employment agency, in this case petitioner MCEI, who is in the best position to know of the matters required in a certification of non-forum shopping. Concerning the second ground for the appellate court's decision, Section 11, Rule 13 of the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure provides: "Sec. 11. Priorities in modes of service and filing. - Whenever practicable, the service and filing of pleadings and other papers shall be done personally. Except with respect to papers emanating from the court, a resort to other modes must be accompanied by a written explanation why the service or filing was not done personally. A violation of this rule may be cause to consider the paper as not filed." Pursuant to this section, service and filing of pleadings and other papers must, whenever practicable, be done personally. If they are made through other modes, the party concerned must provide a written explanation as to why the service or filing was not done personally. To underscore the mandatory nature of this rule requiring personal service whenever practicable, Section 11 of Rule 13 gives the court the discretion to consider a pleading or paper as not filed if the other modes of service or filing were resorted to and no written explanation was made as to why personal service was not done in the first place.[19] In the instant case, it is not disputed that petitioners' Petition for Certiorari filed in the Court of Appeals did not contain an explanation why resort was made to other modes of service of the petition to the parties concerned. In the exercise of its discretion granted under Section 11 of Rule 13, the Court of Appeals considered the same as not having been filed and dismissed the petition outright. Petitioners, in this petition for review on certiorari, do not give a reason why their https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/52244 4/7