26) Agricultural Credit and Cooperative Financing Administration v. ACCFA Supervisors' Association Et. Al.
26) Agricultural Credit and Cooperative Financing Administration v. ACCFA Supervisors' Association Et. Al.
c. RTC: directed the Manager or Officer-in-Charge of the ACA to allow the posting of said
Association et. al., order "for the information of all employees and workers thereof," and to answer the petition
G.R. No. L-21484 (November 29, 1969) d. ACA: while admitting most of the allegations in the petition, denied that the Unions
represented the majority of the supervisors and rank-and-file workers, respectively, in the
FACTS: ACA
1. These are two separate appeals by certiorari; only one decision is now rendered in these two e. However, in a joint manifestation of the Unions dated May 7, 1964, with the conformity of
cases. the ACA Administrator and of the Agrarian Counsel in his capacity as such and as counsel for
the National Land Reform Council, it was agreed "that the union petitioners in this case
2. Backgrounder: represent the majority of the employees in their respective bargaining units" and that only the
legal issues raised would be submitted for the resolution of the trial Court.
The Agricultural Credit and Cooperative Financing Administration (ACCFA) was a
government agency created under Republic Act No. 821, as amended. Its administrative f. RTC: certified "the ACCFA Workers' Association and the ACCFA Supervisors' Association
machinery was reorganized and its name changed to Agricultural Credit Administration as the sole and exclusive bargaining representatives of the rank-and-file employees and
(ACA) under the Land Reform Code (Republic Act No. 3844). supervisors, respectively, of the Agricultural Credit Administration."
On the other hand, the ACCFA Supervisors' Association (ASA) and the ACCFA Workers' g. CIR en banc: affirmed.
Association (AWA), hereinafter referred to as the Unions, are labor organizations composed
of the supervisors and the rank-and-file employees, respectively, in the ACCFA (now ACA). 5. In this appeal, the ACA in effect challenges the jurisdiction of the CIR to entertain the
petition of the Unions for certification election on the ground that it (ACA) is engaged in
3. G.R. No. L-21484 governmental functions. The Unions join the issue on this single point, contending that the
ACA forms proprietary functions.
a. CBA entered into by and between the Unions and the ACCFA. A few months thereafter, the
Unions started protesting against alleged violations and non-implementation of said ISSUE: WON Unions are entitled to certification election.
agreement. Unions declared a strike, which was ended when the strikers voluntarily returned
to work on November 26, 1962. Ruling: NO.
b. Unions, together with its mother union, the Confederation of Unions in Government
We hold that the respondent Unions are not entitled to the certification election sought in the
Corporations and Offices (CUGCO), filed a complaint with the Court of Industrial Relations Court below. Such certification is admittedly for purposes of bargaining in behalf of the
against the ACCFA (Case No. 3450-ULP) for having allegedly committed acts of unfair labor employees with respect to terms and conditions of employment, including the right to strike as
practice. CIR sided with the Unions. a coercive economic weapon, as in fact the said unions did strike in 1962 against the ACCFA
(G.R. No. L-21824). This is contrary to Section 11 of Republic Act No. 875, which provides:
4. G.R. No. L-23605
SEC. 11. Prohibition Against Strike in the Government The terms and conditions of
*During pendency of case in #3 employment in the Government, including any political subdivision or instrumentality thereof,
are governed by law and it is declared to be the policy of this Act that employees therein shall
a. President of the Philippines signed into law the Agricultural Land Reform Code (Republic not strike for the purposes of securing changes or modification in their terms and conditions of
Act No. 3844), which among other things required the reorganization of the administrative employment. Such employees may belong to any labor organization which does not impose
machinery of the Agricultural Credit and Cooperative Financing Administration (ACCFA) and the obligation to strike or to join in strike: Provided, However, that this section shall apply
changed its name to Agricultural Credit Administration (ACA) only to employees employed in governmental functions of the Government including but not
limited to governmental corporations.7
b. ACCFA Supervisors' Association and the ACCFA Workers' Association filed a petition for
certification election with the Court of Industrial Relations (Case No. 1327-MC) praying that With the reorganization of the ACCFA and its conversion into the ACA under the Land
they be certified as the exclusive bargaining agents for the supervisors and rank-and-file Reform Code and in view of our ruling as to the governmental character of the functions
of the ACA, the decision of the respondent Court dated March 25, 1963, and the resolution en
employees, respectively, in the ACA.
banc affirming it, in the unfair labor practice case filed by the ACCFA, which decision is the
subject of the present review in G. R. No. L-21484, has become moot and academic,
particularly insofar as the order to bargain collectively with the respondent Unions is When the Agricultural Reform Code was being considered by the Congress, the nature of the
concerned. ACA was the subject of the following exposition on the Senate floor:
Senator Tolentino: . . . . "The ACA is not going to be a profit making institution. It is supposed
to be a public service of the government to the lessees and farmer-owners of the lands that
I think the meat is more on the following (w/c is more of a backgrounder ) may be bought after expropriation from owners. It is the government here that is the lender.
The government should not exact a higher interest than what we are telling a private
landowner now in his relation to his tenants if we give to their farmers a higher rate of interest
Under Section 3 of the Agricultural Land Reform Code the ACA was established, among other . . . ." (pp. 17 & 18, Senate Journal No. 16, July 3, 1963)
governmental agencies,to extend credit and similar assistance to agriculture, in pursuance of
the policy enunciated in Section 2 as follows:
The reason is obvious, to pinpoint responsibility for many losses in the government, in order to
avoid irresponsible lending of government money to pinpoint responsibility for many
SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. It is the policy of the State: losses . . . .
(1) To establish owner-cultivatorships and the economic family-size farm as the basis of Senator Manglapus: ". . . But assuming that hypothesis, that is the reason why we are
Philippine agriculture and, as a consequence, divert landlord capital in agriculture to industrial appropriating P150,000,000.00 for the Agricultural Credit Administration which will go to
development; intensified credit operations on the barrio level . . ." (p. 3, Senate Journal No. 7).
(2) To achieve a dignified existence for the small farmers free from pernicious institutional That it is the reason why we are providing for the expansion of the ACCFA and the weeding
restraints and practices; out of the cooperative activity of the ACCFA and turning this over to the Agricultural
Productivity Commission, so that the Agricultural Credit Administration will concentrate
(3) To create a truly viable social and economic structure in agriculture conducive to greater entirely on the facilitation of credit on the barrio level with the massive support of 150 million
productivity and higher farm incomes; provided by the government. . . . (pp. 4 & 5 of Senate Journal No. 7, July 3, 1963)
(4) To apply all labor laws equally and without discrimination to both industrial and . . . But by releasing them from this situation, we feel that we are putting them in a much better
agricultural wage earners; condition than that in which they are found by providing them with a business-like way of
obtaining credit, not depending on a paternalistic system but one which is business-like that
(5) To provide a more vigorous and systematic land resettlement program and public land is to say, a government office, which on the barrio level will provide them that credit directly .
distribution; and . . . (p. 40, Senate Journal No. 7, July 3, 1963) (emphasis supplied).
(6) To make the small farmers more independent, self-reliant and responsible citizens, and a The considerations set forth above militate quite strongly against the recognition of collective
source of genuine strength in our democratic society. bargaining powers in the respondent Unions within the context of Republic Act No. 875, and
hence against the grant of their basic petition for certification election as proper bargaining
units. The ACA is a government office or agency engaged in governmental, not proprietary
The implementation of the policy thus enunciated, insofar as the role of the ACA therein is functions.
concerned, is spelled out in Sections 110 to 118, inclusive, of the Land Reform Code.
The power to audit the operations of farmers' cooperatives and otherwise inquire into their
affairs, as given by Section 113, is in the nature of the visitorial power of the sovereign, which
only a government agency specially delegated to do so by the Congress may legally exercise.
The implementation of the land reform program of the government according to Republic Act
No. 3844 is most certainly a governmental, not a proprietary, function; and for that purpose
Executive Order No. 75 has placed the ACA under the Land Reform Project Administration
together with the other member agencies, the personnel complement of all of which are placed
in one single pool and made available for assignment from one agency to another, subject only
to Civil Service laws, rules and regulations, position classification and wage structures.
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