MANILA - Around 200 retrenched Philippine Airlines (PAL) workers picketed anew in front of the Supreme Court on Tuesday to call on the high court to speed up the resolution of their pending case against PAL chairman Lucio Tan.

The case involves the July 1998 retrenchment of 1,400 flight attendants declared illegal, where PAL was ordered to pay P3 billion in favor of the Flights Attendants and Stewards Association (FASAP).

FASAP won the case in a decision dated July 22, 2008; again in October 2, 2009 in a ruling on motion for reconsideration (MR); and then again on September 7, 2011, when Tan's second MR was junked.

The judgment was not executed following an order by the Supreme Court en banc, dated October 4, 2011, to take cognizance of the case from the Second Division.

This, after Tan's lawyer, Estelito Mendoza, wrote the Supreme Court questioning the composition of the membership of the Second Division. Tan's camp insisted that it should have been the Third Division, not the Second Division, that resolved the case.

The procedural lapse was brought about by the re-shuffle of the justices brought about by the retirement of several magistrates, as well as the leave of absence of some justices.

The retrenched workers appealed for "compassion and justice" from the Supreme Court, and urged the high court to uphold its previous rulings. They carried placards that read, "No to SC flipflopping!"