BELLO V. NLRC (APPEAL FILED OUT OF TIME)

The right to appeal is neither a natural right nor a part of the due process. The perfection of an appeal within the period and in the manner prescribed by law is mandatory; noncompliance with this legal requirement is fatal and has the effect of making the judgment final and executory.

The period for filing a petition for certiorari should be reckoned from the time the counsel of record received a copy of the Resolution denying the motion for reconsideration.

Accordingly, the 60-day period for filing the petition for certiorari with the CA should be counted from the receipt by the petitioner's counsel of a copy of the NLRC Decision reversing the Labor Arbiter. It should be noted that when the petitioner filed his MR, only 48 days remained of the 60-day period for filing a petition for certiorari. The petitioner however, filed his petition for certiorari 211 days from the receipt by his counsel of the Resolution denying the MR. In other words, the petition for certiorari was filed 163 days late.

As much as possible, appeals should not be dismissed on a mere technicality in order to afford the litigants the maximum opportunity for the adjudication of their cases on the merits. However, the failure to perfect an appeal is not a mere technicality as it raises a jurisdictional problem which deprives the appellate court of jurisdiction over the appeal. After a decision is declared final and executory, the winning party has the correlative right to enjoy the finality of the decision of the case.