PUREFOODS V. NAGKAKAISANG SAMAHAN

Section 1, Rule 65 of the Rules of Court explicitly mandates that the petition for certiorari shall be accompanied by a sworn certification of non-forum shopping. When the petitioner is a corporation, inasmuch as corporate powers are exercised by the board, the certification shall be executed by a natural person authorized by the corporation's board of directors. Absent any authority from the board, no person, not even the corporate officers, can bind the corporation. Only individuals who are vested with authority by a valid resolution may sign the certificate of non-forum shopping in behalf of the corporation, and proof of such authority must be attached to the petition. Failure to attach to the certification any proof of signatory's authority is a sufficient ground for the dismissal of the petition.

In the instant case, the senior vice president of the petitioner corporation signed the certificate of non-forum shopping. No proof of his authority to sign the said certificate was, however, attached to the petition. Thus, applying settled jurisprudence, we find that the CA committed no error when it dismissed the petition.

We must reiterate that the rules of procedure are mandatory, except only when for the most persuasive reasons, they may be relaxed to relieve a litigant of an injustice not commensurate to the degree of his thoughtlessness in not complying therewith. While technical rules of procedure are not designed to frustrate the ends of justice, they are provided to effect the proper and orderly disposition of cases and effectively prevent the clogging of court dockets.

It is crystal clear that the closure of Sto Thomas farm was made in bad faith. Badges of bad faith are evident from the following acts of the petitioner:

1. it unjustifiably refused to recognize the STFWU's and the other unions' affiliation with PULO;
2. it concluded a new CBA with another union in another farm during the agreed indefinite suspension of the collective bargaining negotiations;
3. it surreptitiously transferred and continued its business in a less hostile environment; and
4. it suddenly terminated the STFWU members, but retained and brought the non-embers to the Malvar farm.

Petitioner presented no evidence to support the contention that it was incurring losses or that the subject farm's lease agreement was preterminated. Ineluctably, the closure of Sto Thomas farm circumvented the labor organization's right to collective bargaining and violated the members' right to security of tenure.

The releases and quitclaims, as well as the affidavits of desistance, signed by the concerned employees, who were then necessitous men at the time of execution of the documents, are declared invalid and ineffective. They will not bar the workers from claiming the full measure of benefits flowing from their legal rights.