Philippine Supreme Court Resolutions > Year 2010 > December 2010 Resolutions > [G.R. No. 178762 : December 15, 2010] LUZVIMINDA A. ANG V. PHILIPPINE NATIONAL BANK :

Please take notice that the Court, Second Division, issued a Resolution dated 15 December 2010 which reads as follows:

G.R. No. 178762 (Luzviminda A. Ang v. Philippine National Bank).

For resolution of the Court is petitioner Luzviminda A. Ang's Motion for Clarification of the Court's Decision dated June 16, 2010, which affirmed the judgment of the Court of Appeals in favor of respondent Philippine National Bank (PNB) but modified it by upholding petitioner's right to "the benefits due her from the bank as of the date of her retirement on May 26, 1996." Petitioner Ang pointed out that the modification would in effect reinstate the decisions of the Labor Arbiter and the National Labor Relations Commission that ordered PNB to pay her withheld gratuity pay benefits of P488,567.87 plus 1% interest per month from the time it fell due until it is actually paid. Petitioner Ang moved to clarify the payment of interest, which was not mentioned in the Court's Decision.

The motion is meritorious in that the Court had overlooked the award of interest. But it is the doctrinal ruling in Eastern Shipping Lines, Inc. v. Court of Appeals^[1] on payment of interest that applies. The interest on obligations not constituting a loan or forbearance of money is 6% per annum computed from demand in accordance with Article 1169 of the New Civil Code. It is the interest on obligations constituting a loan or forbearance of money that the 12% per annum interest computed from the finality of the decision until its satisfaction applies.

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2. When an obligation, not constituting a loan or forbearance of money, is breached, an interest on the amount of damages awarded may be imposed at the discretion of the court at the rate of 6% per annum, x x x. Accordingly, where the demand is established with reasonable certainty, the interest shall begin to run from the time the claim is made judicially or extrajudicially (Art. 1169, Civil Code) but when such certainty cannot be so reasonably established at the time the demand is made, the interest shall begin to run only from the date the judgment of the court is made (at which time the quantification of damages may be deemed to have been reasonably ascertained). The actual base for the computation of legal interest shall, in any case, be on the amount finally adjudged.

3. When the judgment of the court awarding a sum of money becomes final and executory, the rate of legal interest, whether the case falls under paragraph 1 or paragraph 2, above, shall be 12% per annum from such finality until its satisfaction, this interim period being deemed to be by then an equivalent to a forbearance of credit.

WHEREFORE, the Court resolves to GRANT petitioner Luzviminda A. Ang's Motion for Clarification and amends the dispositive portion of its June 16, 2010 Decision to read:

WHEREFORE, the Court AFFIRMS the Court of Appeals decision dated January 30, 2007 and its resolution dated July 6, 2007 in CA-G.R. SP 88449 in favor of respondent Philippine National Bank but with the MODIFICATION that it directs the latter to pay petitioner Luzviminda A. Ang the benefits due her from the bank as of the date of her retirement on May 26, 1996 in the amount of P488,567.87 with interest of 6% per annum computed from the date of her retirement. Upon finality of the Court's Decision, the interest shall be increased to 12% interest per annum until it is satisfied.

SO ORDERED.

Endnotes:

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^[1] G.R. No. 97412, July 12, 1994.234 SCRA 78.