Narciso Gonzales was an employee of ABC Agency, a business process outsourcing

company, which is the maintenance service provider of the fishing boats owned by
Richard Alvarez when the latter was still operating as a sole proprietor from 1995
until 2017. In January 2018, Diamond Fishing Corporation came into existence and
Richard Alvarez became its President and major stockholder. Being in the start-up
stage of its operation, Richard Alvarez contracted the service of ABC Agency once
again while it is still doing a cost-benefit analysis between having a full in-house
maintenance staffs and outsourcing some of the boat maintenance staffs. DFC has its
own boat maintenance staffs on stand-by when the boats are docked. ABC Agency
provides for the maintenance of the boats during fishing season and is in total control
of its employees which included Narciso Gonzales. The fishing operations were set to
begin on 3 March 2018 thus, several planning conferences were held. However,
Gonzales seldom attended them with no justifiable reason whatsoever given to the
team. On 3 March 2018, the fishing vessel assigned to Narciso Gonzalez, FB
Bahaghari, was forced to a premature return from a fishing operation with not a single
catch due to defective Fishing Light. This resulted to a loss of income of DFC. The
said essential equipment was not maintained by Gonzales as evidenced by his verbal
admission to Captain Edwin Arcena when the latter confronted him. Upon return,
Captain Edwin Arcena informed Richard Alvarez of the incident. Richard Alvarez
then confronted Narciso Gonzales and told him: “Kung ayaw nimo mag-trabaho, okay
lang, kaya lang naming.” Richard Alvarez then had to re-dock the boat and request for
another mechanic from ABC Agency to do the maintenance. Not wanting to
compromise the fishing operation any further, they set sail the following day without
Narciso Gonzales who was already informed of the schedule. Narciso Gonzales then,
never appeared inside the company premise. Several letters and summons, urging him
to explain his habitual absences, were sent to ABC Agency and Narciso Gonzales.
Richard Alvarez had even set a meeting with him but to no avail. After exhausting all
the remedies to hear his explanation, DFC was forced to serve the notice of
termination of the service of Narciso Gonzales to ABC Agency and to him.