actually exceeded the mandated periods for the resolution of cases submitted for decision or
resolution before said court or tribunal.
Finally, this study is being conducted amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The researcher
was constrained to rely mainly from online sources of data, which was incomplete and not
updated, especially data on illegal recruitment, as much of the more recent information and
case details were either still unpublished or unobtainable in the limited time available.
III.
PROFILE OF OFW CASES DECIDED BY THE PHILIPPINE SUPREME
COURT FROM 2015-2019
3.1
Number of OFW cases resolved by the Supreme Court. (2015-2019)
The OFW cases selected for this study are only those cases where the principal legal
issues involved relate to overseas employment. For the 5-year period 2015 to 2019, the
Supreme Court decided on a total of 223 OFW cases, or an average of 44.6 OFW cases per
year. OFW cases account for a mere 0.72% of the total number of the cases that were decided
by the Supreme Court in 201812 and 0.76% in 2019.13 Table 1 shows that from the lowest
number of cases resolved in 2016 (36 cases), this peaked in the following year 2017 (53
cases) but has since declined in 2018 (47 cases) and 2019 (44 cases).
Table 1: Number of OFW cases resolved by the Supreme Court (2015-2019)
Year
No. of OFW
cases
3.2
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
43 cases
36 cases
53 cases
47 cases
44 cases
Case classification based on general category of OFWs parties to the
case (land-based or sea-based) (2015-2019)
OFW cases that reach the Supreme Court were predominantly cases involving
seabased workers. Table 2 shows the number of OFW cases that were decided by the
Supreme Court classified according to the two (2) general categories of OFWs – landbased
and seabased OFWs. For the five-year period 2015-2019, on the average, cases involving
seabased workers accounted for 85.39% of the total number of OFW cases resolved by the
Supreme Court per year. On the average, cases involving landbased workers accounted for
only 14.61% of the total number of OFW cases that reached the Supreme Court per year.
12
13
Supreme Court of the Republic of the Philippines, “The Judiciary Annual Report 2018”
http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/files/annual-reports/SC_Annual_18.pdf
Supreme Court of the Republic of the Philippines, “The Judiciary Annual Report 2019”
https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/files/annual-reports/JAR-2019.pdf
8