PSE loses Peñaflor labor case at CA

Philippine Stock Exchange in Manila. AFP FILE PHOTO

The Court of Appeals has upheld a ruling that compels the Philippine Stock Exchange to cough up P240,000 in separation pay for a former employee who has been separately tagged in a stock investment scam.

In a disclosure, the PSE said it would elevate to the Supreme Court this labor lawsuit filed by ex-employee Jose Cecilio Peñaflor.

The PSE said in a disclosure on Wednesday that it had received a copy of the CA resolution dated June 1 denying its motion for reconsideration and upholding an earlier decision by the appellate court to award a separation pay of P240,000 to Peñaflor.

“The company believes there is no basis for the grant of the separation pay,” the PSE said.

Peñaflor sued the PSE and then president Hans Sicat in May 2014, alleging illegal dismissal alongside non-payment of service incentive leave, 13th month pay, separation pay alongside moral and exemplary damages.

The decision upheld by the CA reinstated a 2014 ruling made by a labor arbiter – that was later on reversed by the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) – entitling Peñaflor to P240,000 as separation pay. This was a partial award to his claims as the CA denied his claims for moral and exemplary damages, pro-rated 13th month pay and service incentive leave pay.

NLRC was also included in Peñaflor’s lawsuit.

Peñaflor, who previously headed the PSE’s market education department, is facing separate charges of soliciting stock investments and organizing stock investing seminars without authority and duping some investors. He has been under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Bureau of Investigation for alleged estafa and solicitation of stock investments without authority.

He had been terminated from the PSE since 2013. But in the following years, the local bourse had to issue a public notice that this person was no longer connected with the PSE and was “not and was never connected in any capacity” with stock brokerage houses Regina Capital Development Corp. HE Bennett Securities Inc. and Venture Securities Inc.