PNB-REPUBLIC BANK V. CORDOVA (REMEDIAL)

Petitioner's appeal is deemed perfected as to it when it timely filed its first notice of appeal, following Section 9, Rule 41 of the Rules of Court. Incidentally, this perfected appeal is not docketed with the CA, because the trial court, which was still to resolve respondents' motion for reconsideration, had not yet transmitted the records of the case to the appellate court. Incumbent, nonetheless, on the part of the RTC is the elevation of the records after a resolution of the merits of respondents' motion.

Its appeal having been perfected, petitioner did not need to file a second notice of appeal even if the trial court granted, as it did, the other party's motion for reconsideration and modified the discussion to increase the monetary award.

An essential and logical implication of the said rule is that the filing of a second notice of appeal from the modified decision s a superfluity, if not a useless ceremony. It therefore, matters no longer whether that second notice is timely filed or not. Hence, in this case, petitioner's filing of a belated second notice of appeal does not affect or foreclose its already perfected appeal.

When the appeal is perfected as to petitioner's filing of the first notice in due time, the trial court, insofar as the petitioner is concerned, loses its jurisdiction over the case except to issue orders for the protection and preservation of the rights of the parties which do not involve any matter litigated by the appeal. Obviously, the issue of the correctness of the decision is the subject of the perfected appeal. The trial court no longer had jurisdiction to reverse the February 18, 2002 decision, as modified by the appeal, which would have meant petitioner's abandonment of its appeal. Petitioner, with its appeal already perfected, cannot withdraw the same for the purpose of reviving the jurisdiction of the trial court and enabling it to take another course of action calling for the exercise of that jurisdiction. This is because by filing the notice of appeal, petitioner insofar as it is concerned has perfected its appeal to the CA, and it should be in that court where he may pursue any further remedy.