G.R. No. 111155 - COSMOS BOTTLING CORPORATION, VS. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS COMMISSION, NATIONAL FEDERATION OF LABOR UNION AND PEPITO M. DELA CRUZ.

Ruling

Accordingly, sales supervisors were ordered to check the reports in order to determine who of the salesmen were not giving the so-called trade deals to customers. One of those investigated was private respondent Jose Pepito de la Cruz who admitted to Rene Gallego, personnel investigation clerk of Cosmos Bottling, that he had not issued receipts to Nathalias Store; that he had not given the I.F.S. Store free softdrink to which it was entitled by reason of its purchases and that he had falsified Sales Invoice No. 093870 to make it appear that it covered only one case of Super Pop and one case of Super Cheers when the fact was that the sale consisted of five cases of Crista and five cases of Cheers. Pepito de la Cruz challenged his dismissal, claiming that it had been made without due process. The Labor Arbiter found De la Cruz to have been dismissed for cause and accordingly dismissed his complaint. On appeal, however, the NLRC, with one member dissenting, set aside the Labor Arbiters decision and ordered the reinstatement of De la Cruz to his former position, although denying his claim for backwages. Hence, this petition for certiorari by Cosmos Bottling. The Solicitor General filed a comment recommending the reversal of the decision of the NLRC. On the other hand, the NLRC, after much delay, filed a comment, in which it sought to dismiss Cosmos Bottlings petition on the ground that it was filed without first seeking a reconsideration of its decision. Private respondent failed to file a comment. It will suffice to dispose of the preliminary question raised by the NLRC to say that the rule that before a petition for certiorari may be filed, the petitioner must file a motion for reconsideration in the court or agency which rendered the decision is not an iron-clad rule. It is subject to a number of exceptions, one of which being that when the question raised before the superior court is the same one raised in the court below and passed upon by it, there is no need for the party concerned to ask for a reconsideration. [1] In this case the question raised is the same one argued and submitted to the NLRC for decision, to wit: whether given the facts found by the Labor Arbiter and adopted by the NLRC, the dismissal of private respondent was for cause. We hold that the failure of petitioner to file a motion for reconsideration of the decision of the NLRC cannot bar the filing of the present petition for certiorari. Accordingly, we shall proceed to a consideration of the merit of the petition. As already stated, private respondent admitted during the investigation conducted by the company on July 20, 1989 (1) that he had not issued receipts to a customer; (2) that he falsified a receipt issued to another customer, making it appear that he had sold less number of cases of softdrink than he had actually done to the customer; and (3) that he did not give free softdrink to a customer who was entitled to trade deals based on its purchases. All these, ac