BY HERBERT VEGO
IT could be a modern version of the fight between the boy David and the giant Goliath. Here, it’s an ordinary fisherman in the shoes of David and a fishing magnate in that of Goliath.
Peter Paul Subang had spent the prime of his life fishing at sea on his small rowing boat but had never earned enough to fulfill his family’s growing needs, including the college education of his eldest son. This was the reason why, when the opportunity presented itself, he accepted the offer of a manning agency, JMP Polaris Navigation, to board a fishing vessel of the Chinese-owned Da Ming Fishery. He felt “at home” because JMP Polaris was managed by a Filipina named Anabelle (surname withheld). He boarded the vessel on December 12, 2011 after passing the pre-employment medical exam.
Since the vessel FV Yu Yuan had supposedly all the modern equipment needed to net fishes in the ocean, Subang thought working on board at the high seas off China would be a walk in the park. And so he willingly signed a two-year contract with the JMP/Da Ming partnership for a salary of US $350 per month, or its prevailing equivalent in Philippine money.
To his dismay, however, the vessel was undermanned. With not enough personnel to handle three eight-hour shifts daily, he had to do overtime work most days of the week.
He might not have minded missing sleep had he been compensated with overtime pay on time. But even his supposedly regular monthly salary was not sent to his allottee/wife regularly. There were months when his family back home had to borrow money to eat three times a day; and his wife had to sell fish in the wet market.
The company explained that the fishing vessel was not producing enough income to fund the payroll. Subang could only shake his head and long for a better life on his small fishing boat. In his ninth month on the ship, he demanded for immediate revocation of his two-year contract.
Eventually, the manning agency agreed to send him home to Manila without revoking his contract which would expire in December 2013 yet. Subang arrived in Manila on September 8, 2012.
Within 24 hours, the fisherman/seaman reported to the Manila office of JMP Polaris to demand for his unpaid salaries covering the period December 2011 to August 2012.
Ironically, the agency made use of Subang’s repatriation to deny his claim; it would not even refund his homeward plane fare on the pretext that he had breached his two-year contract.
Though a mere high-school graduate, Subang was sensible enough to realize that the manning agency was exploiting his lack of education to deprive him of what was lawfully his.
Heeding the advice of a lawyer relative, he sought the assistance of Atty. Pedro Linsangan of the Free Legal Assistance for Seafarers (FLAS), who promptly represented him before the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC).
It did not long for the NLRC to rule in favor of Peter Paul Subang and to hold the manning agency guilty of “constructive dismissal.” In legal parlance, it means dismissing an employee who abandons job because continued employment is rendered impossible, unreasonable or unlikely. In the case at bar, there was such clear discrimination, insensibility and disdain on the part of the employer that the employee had no choice but to quit, as in the precedent case Estrella Velasco vs. Transit Automotive Supply (G.R. No. 171327, June 18, 2010). Clearly, the agency made it difficult for the fisherman-away-from-home to be a good provider to his family.
Therefore, the NLRC ordered the agency to pay complainant all his unpaid monthly salaries plus the unexpired portion of his 24-month contract.
With that amount, Peter Paul equipped his old fishing boat with a diesel engine and new nets. The Subang family has since then lived happily ever after.
Incidentally, the Free Legal Assistance for Seafarers (FLAS) has a regional office at GSAT unit, Jamerlan Bldg., Iznart St., Iloilo City with Neri Camiña, Nelly Nobleza and this writer as paralegals.
Seamen or their relatives in need of legal assistance may tune in to FLAS’ radio program, “Tribuna sang Banwa,” on Aksyon Radyo-Iloilo every Sunday, 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Radio host Neri Camiña may be contacted via cellular phone number 0917-3288742./PN
