6/7/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly If the second requisite is lacking, or that the foreign law was not proven pursuant to Sections 24 and 25 of Rule 132 of the Revised Rules of Court, then the international law doctrine of processual presumption operates. The said doctrine declares that " [w]here a foreign law is not pleaded or, even if pleaded, is not proved, the presumption is that foreign law is the same as ours."[42] This was observed in the cases of EDIStaffbuilders and ATCI Overseas. If the third requisite is not met, or that the foreign law stipulated is contrary to law, morals, good customs, public order or public policy, then Philippine laws govern. This finds legal bases in the Civil Code, specifically: (1) Article 17, which provides that laws which have, for their object, public order, public policy and good customs shall not be rendered ineffective by laws of a foreign country; and (2) Article 1306, which states that the stipulations, clauses, terms and conditions in a contract must not be contrary to law, morals, good customs, public order, or public policy. The said doctrine was applied in the case of Pakistan International. Finally, if the fourth requisite is missing, or that the overseas employment contract was not processed through the POEA, then Article 18 of the Labor Code is violated. Article 18 provides that no employer may hire a Filipino worker for overseas employment except through the boards and entities authorized by the Secretary of Labor. In relation thereto, Section 4 of R.A. No. 8042, as amended, declares that the State shall only allow the deployment of overseas Filipino workers in countries where the rights of Filipino migrant workers are protected. Thus, the POEA, through the assistance of the Department of Foreign Affairs, reviews and checks whether the countries have existing labor and social laws protecting the rights of workers, including migrant workers.[43] Unless processed through the POEA, the State has no effective means of assessing the suitability of the foreign laws to our migrant workers. Thus, an overseas employment contract that was not scrutinized by the POEA definitely cannot be invoked as it is an unexamined foreign law. In other words, lacking any one of the four requisites would invalidate the application of the foreign law, and the Philippine law shall govern the overseas employment contract. As the requisites of the applicability of foreign laws in overseas labor contract have been settled, the Court can now discuss the merits of the case at bench. A judicious scrutiny of the records of the case demonstrates that the petitioners were able to observe the second requisite, or that the foreign law must be proven before the court pursuant to the Philippine rules on evidence. The petitioners were able to present the ESA, duly authenticated by the Canadian authorities and certified by the Philippine Embassy, before the LA. The fourth requisite was also followed because Arriola's employment contract was processed through the POEA.[44] Unfortunately for the petitioners, those were the only requisites that they complied with. As correctly held by the CA, even though an authenticated copy of the ESA was submitted, it did not mean that said foreign law could be automatically applied to this case. The petitioners miserably failed to adhere to the two other requisites, which shall be discussed in seratim. elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/61749 10/16