Short answer. Generally, no. Article 20 provides that decisions of the Board are appealable to the National Labor Relations Commission, but once the Commission decides, that decision is final and inappealable. The administrative process under this article ends with the Commission's ruling.
What the law says
The decisions of the Board shall be appealable to the National Labor Relations Commission
Labor Code, Article 20 — National Seamen Board. Read the full provision →
What the law says
The decisions of the National Labor Relations Commission shall be final and inappealable.
Labor Code, Article 20 — National Seamen Board. Read the full provision →
Only one level of appeal is built into this article
Article 20 lays out a specific two-step process for cases involving Filipino seamen in overseas employment. It provides that "the decisions of the Board shall be appealable to the National Labor Relations Commission" on specified grounds set out elsewhere in the Code. A seaman dissatisfied with the Board's decision has one avenue built directly into the statute: appeal to the Commission. That is the single appellate step the article contemplates from the Board's original decision, and it is not a general invitation to relitigate the case from scratch, since the appeal has to rest on the grounds the law recognizes.
The Commission's decision closes the loop under this article
Once that appeal is decided, the article is explicit that the process ends there: "the decisions of the National Labor Relations Commission shall be final and inappealable." There is no further appeal built into Article 20 itself once the Commission has ruled. The word "final" signals that the matter, as far as this provision is concerned, is resolved once the Commission issues its decision.
Why the law limits the appellate chain this way
Labor disputes, especially those involving overseas workers whose livelihoods often depend on prompt resolution, benefit from a process that reaches a definite conclusion rather than dragging through multiple additional layers of review. By making the Commission's decision final and inappealable under this specific article, the law aims to give seamen and their employers a clear, relatively fast resolution rather than an open-ended chain of appeals that could otherwise keep a seaman's livelihood in limbo for years while the case moved from one tribunal to the next.
What this means for a seaman weighing further options
If your case has already gone through the Board and then to the National Labor Relations Commission, Article 20 indicates that the Commission's decision is meant to be the end of that particular process, without a further appeal contemplated by this provision. It is also worth remembering that the Labor Code's article numbers have since been administratively renumbered, so this same rule on Board and Commission decisions may be cited under a different number in more recent references, even though the substance of the finality rule remains unchanged.