Republic Act No. 7700

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled:

Section 1

Article 213 of Presidential Decree No. 442, as amended, otherwise known as the Labor Code of the Philippines, fourth paragraph thereof, is hereby further amended to read as follows:

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"The Commission may sit en banc or in five (5) divisions, each composed of three (3) members. Subject to the penultimate sentence of this paragraph, the Commission shall sit en banc only for purposes of promulgating rules and regulations governing the hearing and disposition of cases before any of its divisions and regional branches and formulating policies affecting its administration and operations. The Commission shall exercise its adjudicatory and all other powers, functions, and duties through its divisions. Of the five (5) divisions, the first, second and third divisions shall handle cases coming from the National Capital Region and other parts of Luzon; and the fourth and fifth divisions, cases from the Visayas and Mindanao, respectively: Provided, That the Commission sitting en banc may, on temporary or emergency basis, allow cases within the jurisdiction of any division to be heard and decided by any other division whose docket allows the additional workload and such transfer will not expose litigants to unnecessary additional expense. The divisions of the Commission shall have exclusive appellate jurisdiction over cases within their respective territorial jurisdiction."

Section 2

All laws, decrees, executive orders, letters of instructions, letters of implementation, rules and regulations or part or parts thereof inconsistent with any provision of this Act are hereby repealed, modified, superseded or amended accordingly.

Section 3

This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its complete publication in the Official Gazette or in at least two (2) national newspapers of general circulation, whichever comes earlier.

Approved, May 1, 1994.