GR 174642; (October, 2009) (Digest)
G.R. No. 174642 ; October 30, 2009
Dominador C. Villa, Petitioner, vs. Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), et al., Respondents.
FACTS
Dominador C. Villa, a former Municipal Agrarian Reform Officer, filed a claim for disability benefits after suffering from TB meningitis and related complications, including profound bilateral sensori-neural hearing loss. The GSIS granted only temporary total disability benefits. Villa sought conversion to permanent total disability status, which the GSIS and the Employees Compensation Commission denied. The Court of Appeals reversed these rulings, declaring Villa entitled to permanent total disability benefits under Republic Act No. 8291 . The Supreme Court, in G.R. No. 161807, denied the GSIS’s petition for review via Resolutions dated March 31, 2004 and June 23, 2004, which became final and executory on August 12, 2004.
Despite the finality of the judgment, the GSIS failed to pay Villa his benefits. The Supreme Court referred Villa’s motion for execution to the court of origin, and the records were ultimately endorsed to the GSIS for compliance. The GSIS still did not act. Consequently, Villa filed the present petition for indirect contempt under Rule 71 of the Rules of Court, alleging the GSIS’s willful refusal to obey the Court’s final and executory Resolutions.
ISSUE
Whether the GSIS and its responsible officers are guilty of indirect contempt for their failure and refusal to comply with the Supreme Court’s final and executory Resolutions ordering the payment of permanent total disability benefits to Dominador C. Villa.
RULING
Yes, the GSIS and its officers are guilty of indirect contempt. The Court emphasized that a decision that has become final and executory is immutable and unalterable. The GSIS’s duty to comply was ministerial and mandatory. Its failure to act constituted a defiance of the Court’s lawful order, which is punishable as indirect contempt under Section 3, Rule 71 of the Rules of Court. The Court rejected the GSIS’s purported internal processing requirements and its implicit challenge to the correctness of the decision as frivolous excuses for non-compliance. Such conduct undermines judicial authority and the orderly administration of justice.
The Court found the respondents’ inaction to be willful and deliberate. It imposed a fine of Thirty Thousand Pesos (₱30,000.00) on the GSIS. The GSIS was further ordered to pay Villa his permanent total disability benefits with a corresponding computation and to submit a compliance report to the Court within sixty days. The respondents were warned that failure to comply would be considered continuing contempt warranting more severe penalties. The ruling reinforces the principle that final judgments must be executed promptly, and no entity, including a government instrumentality, is above this obligation.