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is the inadequacy, and not the mere absence, of all other

legal remedies, and the danger of a failure of justice
without it, that must usually determine the propriety of the
writ. (Chan vs. Secretary of Justice, 548 SCRA 337 [2008])

——o0o——
 

G.R. No. 161690.  July 23, 2008.*

S.S. VENTURES INTERNATIONAL, INC., petitioner, vs.

S.S. VENTURES LABOR UNION (SSVLU) and DIR.
HANS LEO CACDAC, in His capacity as Director of the
Bureau of Labor Relations (BLR), respondents.

Labor Law; Unions; Union Decertification; The right to form,

join, or assist a union is specifically protected by Art. XIII, Section
3 of the Constitution and such right, according to Art. III, Sec. 8 of
the Constitution and Art. 246 of the Labor Code, shall not be
abridged; To decertify a union, it is not enough to show that the
union includes ineligible employees in its membership—it must
also be shown that there was misrepresentation, false statement, or
fraud in connection with the application for registration and the
supporting documents, such as the adoption or ratification of the
constitution and by-laws or amendments thereto and the minutes
of ratification of the constitution or by-laws, among other
documents.—The right to form, join, or assist a union is
specifically protected by Art. XIII, Section 3 of the Constitution
and such right, according to Art. III, Sec. 8 of the Constitution
and Art. 246 of the Labor Code, shall not be abridged. Once
registered with the DOLE, a union is considered a legitimate
labor organization endowed with the right and privileges granted
by law to such organization. While a certificate of registration
confers a union with legitimacy with the concomitant right to
participate in or ask for certification election in a bargaining unit,
the registration may be canceled or the union may be decertified
as the bargaining unit, in which case the union is divested of the
status of a legitimate

_______________

* SECOND DIVISION.

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labor organization. Among the grounds for cancellation is the

commission of any of the acts enumerated in Art. 239(a) of the
Labor Code, such as fraud and misrepresentation in connection
with the adoption or ratification of the union’s constitution and
like documents. The Court, has in previous cases, said that to
decertify a union, it is not enough to show that the union includes
ineligible employees in its membership. It must also be shown
that there was misrepresentation, false statement, or fraud in
connection with the application for registration and the
supporting documents, such as the adoption or ratification of the
constitution and by-laws or amendments thereto and the minutes
of ratification of the constitution or by-laws, among other
documents.
Same; Same; Same; Presumptions; Employees’ withdrawal
from a labor union made before the filing of the petition for
certification election is presumed voluntary, while withdrawal
after the filing of such petition is considered to be involuntary and
does not affect the same.—As aptly noted by both the BLR and CA,
these mostly undated written statements submitted by Ventures
on March 20, 2001, or seven months after it filed its petition for
cancellation of registration, partake of the nature of withdrawal of
union membership executed after the Union’s filing of a petition
for certification election on March 21, 2000. We have in precedent
cases said that the employees’ withdrawal from a labor union
made before the filing of the petition for certification election is
presumed voluntary, while withdrawal after the filing of such
petition is considered to be involuntary and does not affect the
same. Now then, if a withdrawal from union membership done
after a petition for certification election has been filed does not
vitiate such petition, is it not but logical to assume that such
withdrawal cannot work to nullify the registration of the union?
Upon this light, the Court is inclined to agree with the CA that
the BLR did not abuse its discretion nor gravely err when it
concluded that the affidavits of retraction of the 82 members had
no evidentiary weight.
Same; Same; Same; Same; The issuance to a labor union of a
Certificate of Registration necessarily implies that its application
for registration and the supporting documents thereof are prima
facie free from any vitiating irregularities.—It cannot be over-
emphasized that the registration or the recognition of a labor
union after it has submitted the corresponding papers is not
ministerial on the part of

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S.S. Ventures International, Inc. vs. S.S. Ventures Labor Union

the BLR. Far from it. After a labor organization has filed the
necessary registration documents, it becomes mandatory for the
BLR to check if the requirements under Art. 234 of the Labor
Code have been sedulously complied with. If the union’s
application is infected by falsification and like serious

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irregularities, especially those appearing on the face of the

application and its attachments, a union should be denied
recognition as a legitimate labor organization. Prescinding from
these considerations, the issuance to the Union of Certificate of
Registration No. RO300-00-02-UR-0003 necessarily implies that
its application for registration and the supporting documents
thereof are prima facie free from any vitiating irregularities.

PETITION for review on certiorari of the decision and

resolution of the Court of Appeals.
The facts are stated in the opinion of the Court.
   Legal Services Philippines for petitioner.
   Ernesto R. Arellano for private respondent.

VELASCO, JR.,  J.:

Petitioner S.S. Ventures International, Inc. (Ventures), a

PEZA-registered export firm with principal place of
business at Phase I-PEZA-Bataan Export Zone, Mariveles,
Bataan, is in the business of manufacturing sports shoes.
Respondent S.S. Ventures Labor Union (Union), on the
other hand, is a labor organization registered with the
Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) under
Certificate of Registration No. RO300-00-02-UR-0003.
On March 21, 2000, the Union filed with DOLE-Region
III a petition for certification election in behalf of the rank-
and-file employees of Ventures. Five hundred forty two
(542) signatures, 82 of which belong to terminated
Ventures employees, appeared on the basic documents
supporting the petition.

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S.S. Ventures International, Inc. vs. S.S. Ventures Labor
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On August 21, 2000, Ventures filed a Petition1 to cancel

the Union’s certificate of registration invoking the grounds
set forth in Article 239(a) of the Labor Code.2 Docketed as
Case No. RO300-0008-CP-002 of the same DOLE regional
office, the petition alleged the following:
(1)  The Union deliberately and maliciously included
the names of more or less 82 former employees no longer
connected with Ventures in its list of members who
attended the organizational meeting and in the
adoption/ratification of its constitution and by-laws held on
January 9, 2000 in Mariveles, Bataan; and the Union
forged the signatures of these 82 former employees to make
it appear they took part in the organizational meeting and
adoption and ratification of the constitution;
(2)  The Union maliciously twice entered the signatures
of three persons namely: Mara Santos, Raymond
Balangbang, and Karen Agunos;
(3)  No organizational meeting and ratification actually
took place; and
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(4)  The Union’s application for registration was not

supported by at least 20% of the rank-and-file employees of
Ventures, or 418 of the total 2,197-employee complement.
Since more or less 82 of the 5003 signatures were forged or
invalid, then the remaining valid signatures would only be
418, which is very much short of the 439 minimum (2197
total employees x 20% = 439.4) required by the Labor
Code.4

_______________

1 Rollo, pp. 68-77.

2  Art. 239.  GROUNDS FOR CANCELLATION OF UNION
REGISTRATION.—x  x  x (a) Misrepresentation, false statement or fraud
in connection with the adoption or ratification of the constitution and by-
laws or amendments thereto, the minutes of ratification, and the list of
members who took part in the ratification.
3  Per the Union, 542 union members signed the petition for
certification election.
4 Rollo, p. 71.

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In its Answer with Motion to Dismiss,5 the Union denied

committing the imputed acts of fraud or forgery and alleged
that: (1) the organizational meeting actually took place on
January 9, 2000 at the Shoe City basketball court in
Mariveles; (2) the 82 employees adverted to in Ventures’
petition were qualified Union members for, although they
have been ordered dismissed, the one-year prescriptive
period to question their dismissal had not yet lapsed; (3) it
had complied with the 20%-member registration
requirement since it had 542 members; and (4) the “double”
signatures were inadvertent human error.
In its supplemental reply memorandum6 filed on March
20, 2001, with attachments, Ventures cited other instances
of fraud and misrepresentation, claiming that the
“affidavits” executed by 82 alleged Union members show
that they were deceived into signing paper minutes or were
harassed to signing their attendance in the organizational
meeting. Ventures added that some employees signed the
“affidavits” denying having attended such meeting.
In a Decision dated April 6, 2001, Regional Director Ana
C. Dione of DOLE-Region III found for Ventures, the
dispositive portion of which reads:

“Viewed in the light of all the foregoing, this office hereby

grants the petition. WHEREFORE, this office resolved to
CANCEL Certificate of Registration No. [RO300-00-02-UR-0003]
dated 28 February 2000 of respondent S.S. Ventures Labor
Union-Indepen­dent.

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So Ordered.”7

Aggrieved, the Union interposed a motion for

reconsideration, a recourse which appeared to have been
forwarded to the Bureau of Labor Relations (BLR).
Although it would later find

_______________

5 Id., at pp. 78-82.

6 Id., at pp. 118-120.
7 Id., at p. 127.

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this motion to have been belatedly filed, the BLR, over the
objection of Ventures which filed a Motion to Expunge, gave
it due course and treated it as an appeal.
Despite Ventures’ motion to expunge the appeal,8 the
BLR Director rendered on October 11, 2002 a decision9 in
BLR-A-C-60-6-11-01, granting the Union’s appeal and
reversing the decision of Dione. The fallo of the BLR’s
decision reads:

“WHEREFORE, the appeal is hereby GRANTED. The Decision

of Director Ana C. Dione dated 6 April 2001 is hereby
REVERSED and SET ASIDE. S.S. Ventures Labor Union-
Independent shall remain in the roster of legitimate labor
organizations.
SO ORDERED.”10

Ventures sought reconsideration of the above decision

but was denied by the BLR.
Ventures then went to the Court of Appeals (CA) on a
petition for certiorari under Rule 65, the recourse docketed
as CA-G.R. SP No. 74749. On October 20, 2003, the CA
rendered a Decision,11 dismissing Ventures’ petition.
Ventures’ motion for reconsideration met a similar fate.12
Hence, this petition for review under Rule 45, petitioner
Ventures raising the following grounds:

I.
PUBLIC RESPONDENT ACTED RECKLESSLY AND
IMPRUDENTLY, GRAVELY ABUSED ITS DISCRETION AND
EXCEEDED ITS JURISDICTION IN DISREGARDING THE
SUBSTANTIAL AND OVERWHELMING EVIDENCE
ADDUCED BY THE PETITIONER SHOWING THAT
RESPONDENT UNION

_______________

8  Id., at pp. 144-145.

9  Id., at pp. 146-154.
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10 Id., at p. 86.
11 Id., at pp. 52-59. Penned by Associate Justice Eliezer R. De
Los Santos and concurred in by Associate Justices B.A. Adefuin-
De La Cruz (now retired) and Jose C. Mendoza.
12 Per CA Resolution dated January 19, 2004.

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PERPETRATED FRAUD, FORGERY, MISREPRESENTATION

AND MISSTATEMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH THE
ADOPTION AND RATIFICATION OF ITS CONSTITUTION
AND BY-LAWS, AND IN THE PREPARATION OF THE LIST
OF MEMBERS WHO TOOK PART IN THE ALLEGED
ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING BY HOLDING THAT:
A.
THE 87 AFFIDAVITS OF ALLEGED UNION MEMBERS
HAVE NO EVIDENTIARY WEIGHT.
B.
THE INCLUSION OF THE 82 EMPLOYEES IN THE LIST
OF ATTENDEES TO THE JANUARY 9, 2000 MEETING
IS AN INTERNAL MATTER WITHIN THE AMBIT OF
THE WORKER’S RIGHT TO SELF-ORGANIZATION AND
OUTSIDE THE SPHERE OF INFLUENCE (OF) THIS
OFFICE (PUBLIC RESPONDENT IN THIS CASE) AND
THE PETITIONER.
II.
PUBLIC RESPONDENT ACTED RECKLESSLY AND
IMPRUDENTLY, GRAVELY ABUSED ITS DISCRETION AND
EXCEEDED ITS JURISDICTION IN IGNORING AND
DISREGARDING THE BLATANT PROCEDURAL LAPSES OF
THE RESPONDENT UNION IN THE FILING OF ITS MOTION
FOR RECONSIDERATION AND APPEAL.
A.
BY GIVING DUE COURSE TO THE MOTION FOR
RECONSIDERATION FILED BY THE RESPONDENT
UNION DESPITE THE FACT THAT IT WAS FILED
BEYOND THE

REG­LEMENTARY PERIOD.
B.
BY ADMITTING THE APPEAL FILED BY ATTY.
ERNESTO R. ARELLANO AND HOLDING THAT THE
SAME DOES NOT CONSTITUTE FORUM SHOPPING
UNDER SUPREME COURT CIRCULAR NO. 28-91.

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III.
PUBLIC RESPONDENT ACTED RECKLESSLY AND
IMPRUDENTLY, GRAVELY ABUSED ITS DISCRETION AND

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EXCEEDED ITS JURISDICTION IN INVOKING THE

CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO SELF-ORGANIZATION AND
ILO CONVENTION NO. 87 TO JUSTIFY THE MASSIVE
FRAUD, MISREPRESENTATION, MISSTATEMENTS AND
FORGERY COMMITTED BY THE RESPONDENT UNION.13

The petition lacks merit.

The right to form, join, or assist a union is specifically
protected by Art. XIII, Section 314 of the Constitution and
such right, according to Art. III, Sec. 8 of the Constitution
and Art. 246 of the Labor Code, shall not be abridged. Once
registered with the DOLE, a union is considered a
legitimate labor organization endowed with the right and
privileges granted by law to such organization. While a
certificate of registration confers a union with legitimacy
with the concomitant right to participate in or ask for
certification election in a bargaining unit, the registration
may be canceled or the union may be decertified as the
bargaining unit, in which case the union is divested of the
status of a legitimate labor organization.15 Among the
grounds for cancellation is the commission of any of the
acts enumerated in Art. 239(a)16 of the Labor Code, such as
fraud and misrepresentation in connection with the
adoption or ratification of the union’s constitution and like
documents. The Court, has in previous cases, said that to
decertify a union, it is not enough to show that the union
includes ineligible employees in its membership. It must
also be shown that there was misrepresentation, false
statement, or fraud in

_______________

13 Rollo, pp. 11-12

14  Sec.   3.  The State shall afford full protection to labor x  x  x
organized and unorganized x x x. It shall guarantee the rights of all
workers in self-organization, collective bargaining and negotiation, and
peaceful concerted activities x x x.
15 2 Azucena, The Labor Code 197-198 (6th ed., 2007).
16 Supra note 2.

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connection with the application for registration and the

supporting documents, such as the adoption or ratification
of the constitution and by-laws or amendments thereto and
the minutes of ratification of the constitution or by-laws,
among other documents.17
Essentially, Ventures faults both the BLR and the CA in
finding that there was no fraud or misrepresentation on
the part of the Union sufficient to justify cancellation of its
registration. In this regard, Ventures makes much of, first,

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the separate hand-written statements of 82 employees who,

in gist, alleged that they were unwilling or harassed
signatories to the attendance sheet of the organizational
meeting.
We are not persuaded. As aptly noted by both the BLR
and CA, these mostly undated written statements
submitted by Ventures on March 20, 2001, or seven months
after it filed its petition for cancellation of registration,
partake of the nature of withdrawal of union membership
executed after the Union’s filing of a petition for
certification election on March 21, 2000. We have in
precedent cases18 said that the employees’ withdrawal from
a labor union made before the filing of the petition for
certification election is presumed voluntary, while
withdrawal after the filing of such petition is considered to
be involuntary and does not affect the same. Now then, if a
withdrawal from union membership done after a petition
for certification election has been filed does not vitiate such
petition, is it not but logical to assume that such
withdrawal cannot work to nullify the registration of the
union? Upon this light, the Court is inclined to agree with
the CA that the BLR did not abuse its discretion nor
gravely err when it concluded

_______________

17 Air Philippines Corporation v. Bureau of Labor Relations, G.R. No.

155395, June 22, 2006, 492 SCRA 243, 250.
18  Oriental Tin Can Labor Union v. Secretary of Labor and
Employment, G.R. Nos. 116751 & 116779, August 28, 1998, 294 SCRA
640; La Suerte Cigar and Cigarette Factory v. Director of Bureau of Labor
Relations, No. L-55674, July 25, 1983, 123 SCRA 679.

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that the affidavits of retraction of the 82 members had no

evidentiary weight.
It cannot be over-emphasized that the registration or the
recognition of a labor union after it has submitted the
corresponding papers is not ministerial on the part of the
BLR. Far from it. After a labor organization has filed the
necessary registration documents, it becomes mandatory
for the BLR to check if the requirements under Art. 23419
of the Labor Code have been sedulously complied with.20 If
the union’s application is infected by falsification and like
serious irregularities, especially those appearing on the
face of the application and its attachments, a union should
be denied recognition as a legitimate labor organization.
Prescinding from these considerations, the issuance to the
Union of Certificate of Registration No. RO300-00-02-UR-
0003 necessarily implies that its application for
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registration and the supporting documents thereof are

prima facie free from any vitiating irregularities.
Second, Ventures draws attention to the inclusion of 82
individuals to the list of participants in the January 9,
2000 organizational meeting. Ventures submits that the
82, being no longer connected with the company, should not
have been

_______________

19  Art.  234.  Requirements of registration.—Any applicant labor

organization x x x shall acquire legal personality and shall be entitled to
the rights and privileges granted by law to legitimate labor organizations
upon issuance of the certificate of registration based on the following
requirements: (a) Fifty pesos (P50.00) registration fee; (b) The names of its
officers, x  x  x the minutes of the organizational meetings and the list of
the workers who participated in such meetings; (c) the names of all its
members comprising at least twenty percent (20%) of the employees in the
bargaining unit where it seeks to operate; (d) x x x; and (e) Four (4) copies
of the constitution and by-laws of the applicant union, minutes of its
adoption or ratification, and the list of the members who participated in it.
20  Progressive Development Corp.-Pizza Hut v. Laguesma, G.R. No.
115077, April 18, 1977, 271 SCRA 593, 599.

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counted as attendees in the meeting and the ratification

proceedings immediately afterwards.
The assailed inclusion of the said 82 individuals to the
meeting and proceedings adverted to is not really fatal to
the Union’s cause for, as determined by the BLR, the
allegations of falsification of signatures or
misrepresentation with respect to these individuals are
without basis.21 The Court need not delve into the question
of whether these 82 dismissed individuals were still Union
members qualified to vote and affix their signature on its
application for registration and supporting documents.
Suffice it to say that, as aptly observed by the CA, the
procedure for acquiring or losing union membership and
the determination of who are qualified or disqualified to be
members are matters internal to the union and flow from
its right to self-organization.
To our mind, the relevancy of the 82 individuals’ active
participation in the Union’s organizational meeting and the
signing ceremonies thereafter comes in only for purposes of
determining whether or not the Union, even without the
82, would still meet what Art. 234(c) of the Labor Code
requires to be submitted, to wit:

“Art.  234.  Requirements of Registration.—Any applicant

labor organization x x x shall acquire legal personality and shall

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be entitled to the rights and privileges granted by law to

legitimate labor organizations upon issuance of the certificate of
registration based on the following requirements:
xxxx
(c)  The names of all its members comprising at least twenty
percent (20%) of all the employees in the bargaining unit where it
seeks to operate.”

The BLR, based on its official records, answered the

poser in the affirmative. Wrote the BLR:

_______________

21 Rollo, pp. 153-154.

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Union

“It is imperative to look into the records of respondent union

with this Bureau pursuant to our role as a central registry of
union and CBA records under Article 231 of the Labor Code and
Rule XVII of the rules implementing Book V of the Labor Code, as
amended x x x.
In its union records on file with this Bureau, respondent union
submitted the names of [542] members x x x. This number easily
complied with the 20% requirement, be it 1,928 or 2,202
employees in the establishment. Even subtracting the 82
employees from 542 leaves 460 union members, still within
440 or 20% of the maximum total of 2,202 rank-and-file
employees.
Whatever misgivings the petitioner may have with regard to
the 82 dismissed employees is better addressed in the inclusion-
exclusion proceedings during a pre-election conference x x x. The
issue surrounding the involvement of the 82 employees is a
matter of membership or voter eligibility. It is not a
ground to cancel union registration.” (Emphasis added.)

The bare fact that three signatures twice appeared on

the list of those who participated in the organizational
meeting would not, to our mind, provide a valid reason to
cancel Certificate of Registration No. RO300-00-02-UR-
0003. As the Union tenably explained without rebuttal
from Ventures, the double entries are no more than
“normal human error,” effected without malice. Even the
labor arbiter who found for Ventures sided with the Union
in its explanation on the absence of malice.22
The cancellation of a union’s registration doubtless has
an impairing dimension on the right of labor to self-
organization. Accordingly, we can accord concurrence to the
following apt observation of the BLR: “[F]or fraud and
misrepresentation [to be grounds for] cancellation of union
registration under Article 239 [of the Labor Code], the
nature of the fraud and misrepresentation must be grave
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and compelling enough to vitiate the consent of a majority

of union members.”23

_______________

22 Id., at p. 127.
23 Id., at p. 152.

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In its Comment, the Union points out that for almost

seven (7) years following the filing of its petition, no
certification election has yet been conducted among the
rank-and-file employees. If this be the case, the delay has
gone far enough and can no longer be allowed to continue.
The CA is right when it said that Ventures should not
interfere in the certification election by actively and
persistently opposing the certification election of the Union.
A certification election is exclusively the concern of
employees and the employer lacks the legal personality to
challenge it.24 In fact, jurisprudence frowns on the
employer’s interference in a certification election for such
interference unduly creates the impression that it intends
to establish a company union.25
Ventures’ allegations on forum shopping and the
procedural lapse supposedly committed by the BLR in
allowing a belatedly filed motion for reconsideration need
not detain us long. Suffice it to state that this Court has
consistently ruled that the application of technical rules of
procedure in labor cases may be relaxed to serve the
demands of substantial justice.26 So it must be in this case.
WHEREFORE, the petition is DENIED. The Decision
and Resolution dated October 20, 2003 and January 19,
2004, respectively, of the CA are AFFIRMED. S.S.
Ventures Labor Union shall remain in the roster of
legitimate labor organizations, unless it has in the
meantime lost its legitimacy for causes set forth in the
Labor Code. Costs against petitioner.

_______________

24 Oriental Tin Can Labor Union, supra note 18, at p. 650.

25 San Miguel Foods, Inc.-Cebu B-Meg Feed Plant v. Laguesma, G.R.
No. 116172, October 10, 1996, 263 SCRA 68, 82.
26 Fiel v. Kris Security Systems, Inc., G.R. No. 155875, April 3, 2003,
400 SCRA 533, 536; El Toro Security Agency, Inc. v. National Labor
Relations Commission, G.R. No. 114308, April 18, 1996, 256 SCRA 363,
366.

448

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SO ORDERED.

Quisumbing (Chairperson), Ynares-Santiago,** Carpio-

Morales and Tinga, JJ., concur.

Petition denied, judgment and resolution affirmed.

Notes.—Once a labor union attains the status of a

legitimate labor organization, it continues as such until its
certificate of registration is cancelled or revoked in an
independent action for cancellation. When the personality
of the labor organization is questioned in the same manner
the veil of corporate fiction is pierced, the action partakes
the nature of a collateral attack. (Coastal Subic Bay
Terminal, Inc. vs. Department of Labor and Employment-
Office of the Secretary, 507 SCRA 300 [2006])
A legitimate labor organization is defined as “any labor
organization duly registered with the Department of Labor
and Employment, and includes any branch or local
thereof.” Legitimate labor organizations have exclusive
rights under the law which cannot be exercised by non-
legitimate unions, one of which is the right to be certified
as the exclusive representative of all the employees in an
appropriate collective bargaining unit for purposes of
collective bargaining. (San Miguel Corporation Employees
Union-Philippine Transport and General Workers
Organization [SMCEU-PTGWO] vs. San Miguel Packaging
Products Employees Union-Pambansang Diwa ng
Manggagawang Pilipino [SMPPEU-PDMP], 533 SCRA 125
[2007])

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_______________

** Additional member as per Special Order No. 509 dated July 1, 2008.

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