G.R. No. 122627 - WILSON ABA, VS. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS COMMISSION (FOURTH DIVISION) AND ALFONSO VILLEGAS. D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

Accordingly, it moves for the setting aside of the decision of the NLRC which dismissed Aba's appeal and motion for reconsideration for non-payment of the appeal docketing fee. The petition is impressed with merit. "Appeal" means the elevation by an aggrieved party of any decision or award of a lower body to a higher body by means of a pleading which includes the assignment of errors, arguments in support thereof, and the reliefs prayed for. [10] On the other hand, "perfection of an appeal" includes the filing, within the prescribed period, of the memorandum of appeal containing, among others, the assignment of error/s, arguments in support thereof, the relief sought and, in appropriate cases, posting of the appeal bond. [11] An appeal bond is necessary only in case of a judgment involving a monetary award, in which case, the appeal may be perfected only upon the posting of a cash or surety bond issued by a reputable bonding company duly accredited by the Commission in the amount equivalent to the monetary award in the judgment appealed from. [12] In the instant case, it is undisputed that the appeal was filed within the reglementary period. The memorandum of appeal contained an assignment of errors, the arguments in support thereof, and the reliefs sought. No appeal bond was necessary as the decision being appealed did not contain any monetary award. Nowhere is it written that payment of appeal docketing fee is necessary for the perfection of the appeal. Therefore, there is no question that the appeal in the instant case has been perfected and the failure to pay the appeal docketing fee is not fatal. Besides, it is settled jurisprudence that technical rules of evidence are not binding in any proceedings before the Commission or any of the labor arbiters. [13] It has been the policy of this Court to resolve labor disputes with the view of compassionate justice towards the working class. Corollarily, this issue has already been squarely resolved in C.W. Tan Mfg. v. NLRC [14] wherein we ruled - As to the issue of the non-payment of the appeal fee on time, this Court held in Del Rosario & Sons Logging Enterprises, Inc. v. NLRC that "failure to pay the appeal docketing fee confers a directory and not mandatory power to dismiss an appeal and such power must be exercised with a sound discretion and with a great deal of circumspection considering all attendant circumstances." It is true that in Acda v. Minister of Labor we said that the payment of the appeal fee is "by no means a mere technicality but is an essential requirement in the perfection of an appeal." However, where as in this case the fee had been paid belatedly, the broader interest of justice and the desired objective in deciding the case on the merits demand that the appeal be given due course. Significantly, Aba is even excused from paying docket fees pursuant to Art. 277, par. (d), of the Labor Code which provides that no docket fee shall be assessed in labor standards disputes, [15] and