Real estate developer appeals 'irregular' SC ruling

MANILA, Philippines - A real estate developer asked the Supreme Court (SC) Thursday to reconsider its Jan. 25, 2012 ruling awarding P60 million in compensation to an Australian man who filed a labor suit against him.

Eulalio Ganzon, owner of E. Ganzon Inc. (EGI), asked the high court to reverse a ruling of its third division favoring petitioner Andrew James McBurnie and elevate the case for resolution of the full court.

Ganzon insisted that labor arbiter Salimathar Nambi’s 2004 decision to compensate McBurnie, which was affirmed by the SC’s third division in a ruling penned by then Justice Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, was “irregular” considering that he has no alien employment permit and working visa to legally work in the country.

Through lawyer Teodoro Jumamil, Ganzon also asked the SC to instead uphold the Court of Appeals’ decision rendered on Oct. 27, 2008 and the ruling of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) on Nov. 17, 2009 against McBurnie, which found the Australian is not Ganzon’s “employee, but a business partner.”

Ganzon also said McBurnie left the Philippines for Australia in 1999, just two months after the start of the alleged employment agreement, and still has not returned to the Philippines.

He also said McBurnie could not have signed and personally appeared before the NLRC administering officer as indicated in the complaint sheet since he left the country three years before the complaint was filed and he never came back.