Because his receipt of the proceeds of the award under the NLRC’s November 30, 2005 Decision is qualified and without prejudice to the CA’s resolution of his petition for certiorari, the petitioner is not barred from exercising his right to elevate the decision of the CA to this Court.
Before this Court proceeds to decide this Petition on its merits, it is imperative to resolve the respondents’ contention that the full satisfaction of the award under the NLRC’s November 30, 2005 Decision bars the petitioner from questioning the validity thereof. The respondents submit that they had paid the petitioner the amount of P21,521.67 as directed by the NLRC and this constitutes a waiver of his right to file an appeal to this Court.
The respondents fail to convince.
The petitioner’s receipt of the monetary award adjudicated by the NLRC is not absolute, unconditional and unqualified. The petitioner’s May 3, 2007 Motion for Release contains a reservation, stating in his prayer that: “it is respectfully prayed that the respondents and/or Great Domestic Insurance Co. be ordered to RELEASE/GIVE the amount of P23,521.67 in favor of the complainant TIMOTEO H. SARONA without prejudice to the outcome of the petition with the CA.”33
In Leonis Navigation Co., Inc., et al. v. Villamater, et al.,34 this Court ruled that the prevailing party’s receipt of the full amount of the judgment award pursuant to a writ of execution issued by the labor arbiter does not
close or terminate the case if such receipt is qualified as without prejudice to the outcome of the petition for certiorari pending with the CA.
Simply put, the execution of the final and executory decision or resolution of the NLRC shall proceed despite the pendency of a petition forcertiorari, unless it is restrained by the proper court. In the present case, petitioners already paid Villamater’s widow, Sonia, the amount ofP3,649,800.00, representing the total and permanent disability award plus attorney’s fees, pursuant to the Writ of Execution issued by the Labor Arbiter. Thereafter, an Order was issued declaring the case as "closed and terminated". However, although there was no motion for reconsideration of this last Order, Sonia was, nonetheless, estopped from claiming that the controversy had already reached its end with the issuance of the Order closing and terminating the case. This is because the Acknowledgment Receipt she signed when she received petitioners’ payment was without prejudice to the final outcome of the petition for certiorari pending before the CA.35
The finality of the NLRC’s decision does not preclude the filing of a petition for certiorari under Rule 65 of the Rules of Court. That the NLRC issues an entry of judgment after the lapse of ten (10) days from the parties’ receipt of its decision36 will only give rise to the prevailing party’s right to move for the execution thereof but will not prevent the CA from taking cognizance of a petition forcertiorari on jurisdictional and due process considerations.37 In turn, the decision rendered by the CA on a petition for certiorari may be appealed to this Court by way of a petition for review on certiorariunder Rule 45 of the Rules of Court. Under Section 5, Article VIII of the Constitution, this Court has the power to “review, revise, reverse, modify, or affirm on appeal or certiorari as the law or the Rules of Court may provide, final judgments and orders of lower courts in x x x all cases in which only an error or question of law is involved.” Consistent with this constitutional mandate, Rule 45 of the Rules of Court provides the remedy of an appeal by certiorari from decisions, final orders or resolutions of the CA in any case, i.e., regardless of the nature of the action or proceedings
involved, which would be but a continuation of the appellate process over the original case.38 Since an appeal to this Court is not an original and independent action but a continuation of the proceedings before the CA, the filing of a petition for review under Rule 45 cannot be barred by the finality of the NLRC’s decision in the same way that a petition for certiorari under Rule 65 with the CA cannot.
Furthermore, if the NLRC’s decision or resolution was reversed and set aside for being issued with grave abuse of discretion by way of a petition for certiorari to the CA or to this Court by way of an appeal from the decision of the CA, it is considered void ab initio and, thus, had never become final and executory.39
x x x."