Journalist awarded P6M in damages

THE Court of Appeals (CA) has ordered Japan’s largest commercial television network to reinstate a Filipino news producer and pay her millions of pesos in back wages and damages for illegally terminating her after she was diagnosed with cancer four years ago.

The CA’s Eighth Dvision ruled that Tokyo-based Fuji Television Network Inc. (Fuji TV) should reinstate veteran journalist Arlene Samson-Espiritu and pay her P6.5 million in backwages, moral and exemplary damages, after a three-year legal battle.

The appeals court has also junked the motion for reconsideration filed by Fuji TV.

Fuji TV Manila bureau chief Yoshiko Aoki allegedly forced Espiritu to resign immediately after finding out that the news producer had lung cancer.

The CA, however, found that the act of forcing Espiritu to resign was tantamount to illegal dismissal.

“Since Fuji did not observe due process in severing the employment of Espiritu, We hold that she was illegally dismissed,” it stated in its decision.

In a 16-page decision penned by Associate Justice Edwin Sorongon, the appellate court rebuked Fuji TV and the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC).

The decision stated, “Under Philippine disability laws, cancer patients are considered disabled persons who have the right to equal opportunity for employment and their dismissal or termination from work due to their illness alone is discrimination of employment.”

Reversing the earlier decision of the NLRC, the court said that Espiritu has become a regular employee of Fuji with respect to the activities for which she was employed and having continuously rendered services which are deemed necessary and desirable to the usual business of the television network.

The court also ordered Fuji to pay complainant-appellant backwages computed from the date of her illegal dismissal until the court issued its final decision.

The CA also ruled that Espiritu is entitled to the award of moral and exemplary damages.

“Award of moral and exemplary damages for an illegally dismissed employee is proper where the employee had been harassed and arbitrarily terminated by the employer,” the decision stated.

Espiritu, for her part, said, “What was important was hope and knowing that I still mattered, that I can still do things,” she said.

“I was expecting Fuji to be my hope. But Fuji did not give me that hope,” Espiritu added.

Espiritu works a freelance reporter and producer. She had worked with international news organizations such as CNN, Al Jazeera English, Asahi Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun and TV Asahi. She also does media and public relations consultancies. JOMAR CANLAS