"x x x.
Ganzon had filed a motion to reconsider before the SC’s third division but his plea and his companies’ second motion for reconsideration were denied. Thus, he asked for the tribunal to elevate his case to the full court.
Ganzon, who had been ordered to pay the P60 million in compensation to Australian Andrew James McBurnie, said the foreigner could not have filed personally, as required by the rules, the alleged illegal dismissal case in 2002 because he had left the country in 1999 and had not returned since then.
That was the reason McBurnie failed to attend any of the 14 hearings conducted by labor arbiter Salimathar Nambi on the complaint that was filed in absentia, Ganzon told the high court.
Despite McBurnie’s filing of the case in absentia and his non-attendance in hearings, the labor arbiter ordered an award of P60 million in compensation to the Australian was allegedly illegally dismissed less than two months after his reported employment.
x x x."
