Facts
Jonald O. Torreda (petitioner) was hired by Investment and Capital Corporation of the Philippines (respondent) on May 17, 2010 as an IT Senior Manager. He was tasked to supervise his team in the Information Technology (IT) Department and manage the IT-related projects. He reported to William M. Valtos, Jr. (Valtos), the Officer in-Charge of the IT Department and the Group President of the Financial Service of respondent.
Sometime during his employment, he had a falling out with the senior management for its interference with the functions of the IT department. On January 5, 2012, petitioner went to the office of Valtos for a closed-door conference meeting supposedly regarding his IT projects. In said meeting, Valtos discussed another matter with petitioner and told him that if his performance were to be appraised at that time, Valtos would give him a failing grade because of the negative feedback from the senior management and the IT staff. The performance appraisal of petitioner, however, was not due until May 2012.
Torreda was then gave petitioner a prepared resignation letter and asked him to sign; otherwise, the company would terminate him. The said letter indicated that the resignation of petitioner would be effective on February 4, 2012. Petitioner refused to sign the resignation letter but such refusal was not accepted. Thus, Valtos edited the resignation letter. Petitioner thought of leaving the room by making an excuse to go to the restroom, but Valtos and respondent’s legal counsel followed him.
Because of Valtos’ insistence, petitioner placed his initials in the resignation letter to show that the letter was not official. Valtos then accompanied petitioner to his room to gather his belongings and escorted him out of the building. Petitioner was not allowed to report for work anymore and his company e-mail address was deactivated.
Six (6) days after the incident, petitioner filed the instant complaint for illegal dismissal (constructive), moral and exemplary damages and attorney’s fees against respondent.
For its part, respondent countered that petitioner was not illegally dismissed because he voluntarily resigned. Respondent stated that while Valtos admitted that he gave a resignation letter to petitioner on January 5, 2012, petitioner himself edited the letter to include courteous words and voluntarily signed the same. Valtos also admitted that the performance appraisal of petitioner was not due until May 2012.
Issue
1. Whether or not the resignation letter was voluntarily signed
Respondent argues that since petitioner edited the resignation letter and added words of courtesy, it was improbable for him to involuntarily sign the letter. It further asserts that it was impossible to coerce petitioner to sign a prepared resignation letter because he had a managerial position and a high educational status.
These numerous facts and circumstances certainly contradict the voluntariness of petitioner’s resignation. Any reasonable person in the petitioner’s position would have felt compelled to give up his position. Assuming arguendo that petitioner edited the said letter and inserted words of courtesy, these are insufficient to prove the voluntariness of his resignation in light of the various circumstances which demonstrated that he did not have a choice in his forced resignation.
