The Supreme Court ruled that while the DOLE and POEA circulars temporarily suspending private recruitment agencies from deploying Filipino domestic helpers to Hong Kong were a valid exercise of police power, they were legally invalid and unenforceable due to lack of proper publication and filing as required by law. Specifically:
1) The circulars fell within the DOLE and POEA's broad authority to regulate overseas employment and recruitment agencies.
2) They were a reasonable measure to address abuses suffered by domestic helpers in Hong Kong until protective mechanisms could be established.
3) However, the circulars were not properly published and filed with the National Administrative Register as required, so they could not be enforced.
The Supreme Court ruled that while the DOLE and POEA circulars temporarily suspending private recruitment agencies from deploying Filipino domestic helpers to Hong Kong were a valid exercise of police power, they were legally invalid and unenforceable due to lack of proper publication and filing as required by law. Specifically:
1) The circulars fell within the DOLE and POEA's broad authority to regulate overseas employment and recruitment agencies.
2) They were a reasonable measure to address abuses suffered by domestic helpers in Hong Kong until protective mechanisms could be established.
3) However, the circulars were not properly published and filed with the National Administrative Register as required, so they could not be enforced.
Original Title
36. PASEI vs. Sec of DOLE Torres.docx - Google Docs
The Supreme Court ruled that while the DOLE and POEA circulars temporarily suspending private recruitment agencies from deploying Filipino domestic helpers to Hong Kong were a valid exercise of police power, they were legally invalid and unenforceable due to lack of proper publication and filing as required by law. Specifically:
1) The circulars fell within the DOLE and POEA's broad authority to regulate overseas employment and recruitment agencies.
2) They were a reasonable measure to address abuses suffered by domestic helpers in Hong Kong until protective mechanisms could be established.
3) However, the circulars were not properly published and filed with the National Administrative Register as required, so they could not be enforced.
The Supreme Court ruled that while the DOLE and POEA circulars temporarily suspending private recruitment agencies from deploying Filipino domestic helpers to Hong Kong were a valid exercise of police power, they were legally invalid and unenforceable due to lack of proper publication and filing as required by law. Specifically:
1) The circulars fell within the DOLE and POEA's broad authority to regulate overseas employment and recruitment agencies.
2) They were a reasonable measure to address abuses suffered by domestic helpers in Hong Kong until protective mechanisms could be established.
3) However, the circulars were not properly published and filed with the National Administrative Register as required, so they could not be enforced.
DOCTRINE The vesture of quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial powers in administrative bodies is not unconstitutional, unreasonable and oppressive. It has been necessitated by "the growing complexity of the modern society"
More and more administrative bodies are necessary to help in the regulation of society's ramified activities. "Specialized in the particular field assigned to them, they can deal with the problems thereof with more expertise and dispatch than can be expected from the legislature or the courts of justice."
FACTS:
This petition for prohibition with temporary restraining order was filed by the Philippine Association of Service Exporters (PASEI, for short), to prohibit and enjoin the Secretary of the DOLE and the Administrator of the POEA from enforcing and implementing DOLE Department Order No. 16, Series of 1991 and POEA Memorandum Circular Nos. 30 and 37, Series of 1991, temporarily suspending the recruitment by private employment agencies of Filipino domestic helpers for Hong Kong and vesting in the DOLE, through the facilities of the POEA, the task of processing and deploying such workers. ---
PASEI is the largest national organization of private employment and recruitment
agencies duly licensed and authorized by the POEA, to engage in the business of obtaining overseas employment for Filipino land based workers, including domestic helpers.
On June 1, 1991, as a result of published stories regarding the abuses suffered by
Filipino housemaids employed in Hong Kong, DOLE Secretary Ruben D. Torres issued Department Order No. 16, Series of 1991, temporarily suspending the recruitment by private employment agencies of "Filipino domestic helpers going to Hong Kong." The DOLE itself, through the POEA took over the business of deploying such Hong Kong-bound workers.
Pursuant to the above DOLE circular, the POEA issued Memorandum Circular No. 30, Series of 1991, dated July 10, 1991, providing GUIDELINES on the Government processing and deployment of Filipino domestic helpers to Hong Kong and the accreditation of Hong Kong recruitment agencies intending to hire Filipino domestic helpers. ADMIN | DIGESTS | 2F
On September 2, 1991, the petitioner, PASEI, filed this petition for prohibition to annul the aforementioned DOLE and POEA circulars and to prohibit their implementation for the following reasons:
1. that the respondents acted with grave abuse of discretion and/or in excess of their rule-making authority in issuing said circulars; 2. that the assailed DOLE and POEA circulars are contrary to the Constitution, are unreasonable, unfair and oppressive; and 3. that the requirements of publication and filing with the Office of the National Administrative Register were not complied with.
ISSUE: WON the respondents acted with grave abuse of discretion and/or in excess of their rule-making authority in issuing said circulars- NO
SC RULING: No. The scope of the regulatory authority of the POEA, which was created to take over the functions of the Overseas Employment Development Board, the National Seamen Board, and the overseas employment functions of the Bureau of Employment Services, is broad and far-ranging for:
1. Among the functions inherited by the POEA from the defunct Bureau of Employment Services was the power and duty: "'2. To establish and maintain a registration and/or licensing system to private sector participation in the recruitment and placement of workers, locally and overseas, . . . .' (Art. 15, Labor Code, italics supplied)."
Also Article 36 of the Labor Code grants the Labor Secretary the power to restrict and regulate recruitment and placement activities. The challenge administrative issuance discloses that the same fall within the administrative and police powers expressly or by necessary implication conferred upon the respondents.
It is noteworthy that the assailed circulars do not prohibit the petitioner from engaging in the recruitment and deployment of Filipino land based workers for overseas employment. A careful reading of the challenged administrative issuances discloses that the same fall within the "administrative and policing powers expressly or by necessary implication conferred" upon the respondents
The power to "restrict and regulate conferred by Article 36 of the Labor Code involves a grant of police power. To "restrict" means "to confine, limit or stop" and whereas the power to "regulate" means "the power to protect, foster, promote, preserve, and control with due regard for the interests, first and foremost, of the public, then of the utility and of its patrons"
The Solicitor General, in his Comment, aptly observed:
" . . . Said Administrative Order [i.e., DOLE Administrative Order No. 16] merely ADMIN | DIGESTS | 2F
restricted the scope or area of petitioner's business operations by excluding
therefrom recruitment and deployment of domestic helpers for Hong Kong till after the establishment of the `mechanisms' that will enhance the protection of Filipino domestic helpers going to Hong Kong. In fine, other than the recruitment and deployment of Filipino domestic helpers for Hongkong, petitioner may still deploy other class of Filipino workers either for Hong Kong And other countries and all other classes of Filipino workers for other countries.
"Said administrative issuances, intended to curtail, if not to end, rampant violations
of the rule against excessive collections of placement and documentation fees, travel fees and other charges committed by private employment agencies recruiting and deploying domestic helpers to Hongkong [They are] reasonable, valid and justified under the general welfare clause of the Constitution, since the recruitment and deployment business, as it is conducted today, is affected with public interest.”
"The alleged takeover [of the business of recruiting and placing Filipino domestic helpers in Hongkong] is merely a remedial measure, and expires after its purpose shall have been attained. This is evident from the tenor of Administrative Order No. 16 that recruitment of Filipino domestic helpers going to Hongkong by private employment agencies are hereby 'temporarily suspended effective July 1. 1991.”
"The alleged takeover is limited in scope, being confined to recruitment of domestic
helpers going to Hongkong only."
The questioned circulars are therefore a valid exercise of the police power as delegated to the executive branch of Government.
Nevertheless, they are legally invalid, defective and unenforceable for lack of proper publication and filing in the Office of the National Administrative Register as required in Article 2 of the Civil Code, Article 5 of the Labor Code and Sections 3(1) and 4, Chapter 2, Book VII of the Administrative Code of 1987.
