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CEBU CITY, Philippines ? Former television reporter Ramil Paican asked the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) in Cebu City to order ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation to reinstate him with full back wages.
Paican was terminated by the network through ABS-CBN- Cebu station manager Veneranda ?Tata? Cinco-Sy on October 1 for dishonesty and deceit.
The termination stemmed from his alleged non-disclosure of facts in his news report about the mauling of Police Chief Inspector Jose Liddawa on September 18, 2007, wherein he took part in the attack.
Paican in his position paper through counsel Fritz Quinanola last Thursday asked that the network reinstate him or a separation pay should be given him equivalent to one-month pay for every year of service.
Paican, who worked with ABS-CBN for 14 years before he was dismissed, is also asking the NLRC to order the television network to pay P300,000 in damages and P50,000 in attorney's fees.
Quinanola in an interview said that his client was illegally terminated. He said that ABS-CBN failed to furnish his client with two written notices before he was dismissed.
He cited the case of Pepsi Cola Bottling Co. vs. NLRC, which states that ?the law requires that the employer must furnish the worker sought to be dismissed with two written notices before termination of employment can be legally effected.?
Quinanola said Paican was just verbally called to a couple of meetings where he naturally obliged being a subordinate.
The lawyer also noted that in terminating Paican the grievance procedure under the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) was not followed.
?This only shows that the sheer malice and bad faith in terminating the complainant. Any termination that falls short of the grievance procedure is a total nullity,? said Quinanola.
Quinanola insisted that the reason given by Sy in terminating his client ?is bereft of merit.?
Quinanola said that granting without admitting that Paican did physically attack the policeman, his client cannot be compelled by Sy to disclose it as it will incriminate him.
?He has the right to withhold, to compel him would violate his constitutional right,? said Quinanola.
He told the NLRC that Paican has no record of any prior misdemeanor before the incident with Liddawa. /Reporter Nilda Gallo
