EN BANC

G.R. Nos. 171947-48 — METROPOLITAN MANILA DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY, DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, CULTURE AND SPORTS, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS AND HIGHWAYS, DEPARTMENT OF BUDGET AND MANAGEMENT, PHILIPPINE COAST GUARD, PHILIPPINE NATIONAL POLICE MARITIME GROUP, AND DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT, Petitioners v. CONCERNED RESIDENTS OF MANILA BAY, represented and joined by DIVINA V. ILAS, SABINIANO ALBARRACIN, MANUEL SANTOS, JR., DINAH DELA PEÑA, PAUL DENNIS QUINTERO, MA. VICTORIA LLENOS, DONNA CALOZA, FATIMA QUITAIN, VENICE SEGARRA, FRITZIE TANGKIA, SARAH JOELLE LINTAG, HANNIBAL AUGUSTUS BOBIS, FELIMON SAN-TIAGUEL, and JAIME AGUSTIN R. OPOSA, Respondents.

Promulgated:

February 15, 2011

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DISSENTING OPINION

CARPIO, J.:

The Resolution contains the proposed directives of the Manila Bay Advisory Committee to the concerned agencies¹ and local government units (LGUs) for the implementation of the 18 December 2008 Decision of the Court in this case.

Among the directives stated in the Resolution is for the affected agencies to submit to the Court their plans of action and status reports, thus:

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), as lead agency in the Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004, shall submit to the Court on or before June 30, 2011 the updated Operational Plan for the Manila Bay Coastal Strategy (OPMBCS);²

The DILG is required to submit a five-year plan of action that will contain measures intended to ensure compliance of all non-complying factories, commercial establishments, and private homes;³

The MWSS shall submit to the Court on or before June 30, 2011 the list of areas in Metro Manila, Rizal and Cavite that do not have the necessary wastewater treatment facilities. Within the same period, the concessionaires of the MWSS shall submit their plans and projects for the construction of wastewater treatment facilities in all the aforesaid areas and the completion period for said facilities, which shall not go beyond 2020;⁴

The Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) shall submit to the Court on or before June 30, 2011 the list of cities and towns in Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan, Pampanga, and Bataan that do not have sewerage and sanitation facilities. LWUA is further ordered to submit on or before September 30, 2011 its plan to provide, install, operate and maintain sewerage and sanitation facilities in said cities and towns and the completion period for said works which shall be fully implemented by December 31, 2020;⁵

The Department of Agriculture (DA), through the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), shall submit to the Court on or before June 30, 2011 a report on areas in Manila Bay where marine life has to be restored or improved and the assistance it has extended to the LGUs in Metro Manila, Rizal, Cavite, Laguna, Bulacan, Pampanga and Bataan in developing the fisheries and aquatic resources in Manila Bay. The report shall contain monitoring data on the marine life in said areas. Within the same period, it shall submit its five-year plan to restore and improve the marine life in Manila Bay, its future activities to assist the aforementioned LGUs for that purpose, and the completion period for said undertakings;⁶

The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) shall incorporate in its quarterly reports the list of violators it has apprehended and the status of their cases. The PPA is further ordered to include in its report the names, make and capacity of the ships that dock in PPA ports. The PPA shall submit to the Court on or before June 30, 2011 the measures it intends to undertake to implement its compliance with paragraph 7 of the dispositive portion of the MMDA Decision and the completion dates of such measures;⁷

The Philippine National Police (PNP) – Maritime Group shall submit on or before June 30, 2011 its five-year plan of action on the measures and activities they intend to undertake to apprehend the violators of RA 8550 or the Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998 and other pertinent laws, ordinances and regulations to prevent marine pollution in Manila Bay and to ensure the successful prosecution of violators;⁸

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) shall likewise submit on or before June 30, 2011 its five-year plan of action on the measures and activities they intend to undertake to apprehend the violators of Presidential Decree (PD) 979 or the Marine Pollution Decree of 1976 and RA 9993 or the Philippine Coast Guard Law of 2009 and other pertinent laws and regulations to prevent marine pollution in Manila Bay and to ensure the successful prosecution of violators;⁹

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) shall submit to the Court on or before June 30, 2011 the names and addresses of the informal settlers in Metro Manila who own and occupy houses, structures, constructions and other encroachments established or built in violation of RA 7279 and other applicable laws along the Pasig-Marikina-San Juan Rivers, the NCR (Parañaque-Zapote, Las Piñas) Rivers, the Navotas-Malabon-Tullahan-Tenejeros Rivers, and connecting waterways and esteros as of December 31, 2010. On or before the same date, the MMDA shall submit its plan for the removal of said informal settlers and the demolition of the aforesaid houses, structures, constructions and encroachments, as well as the completion dates for said activities which shall be fully implemented not later than December 31, 2015;¹⁰

[T]he DPWH and the aforesaid LGUs shall jointly submit its plan for the removal of said informal settlers and the demolition of the aforesaid structures, constructions and encroachments, as well as the completion dates for such activities which shall be implemented not later than December 31, 2012;¹¹

[T]he DOH shall submit a plan of action to ensure that the said companies have proper disposal facilities and the completion dates of compliance;¹²

On or before June 30, 2011, the DepEd shall also submit its plan of action to ensure compliance of all the schools under its supervision with respect to the integration of the aforementioned subjects in the school curricula which shall be fully implemented by June 30, 2012;¹³ (Emphasis supplied)

What is the purpose of requiring these agencies to submit to the Court their plans of action and status reports? Are these plans to be approved or disapproved by the Court? The Court does not have the competence or even the jurisdiction to evaluate these plans which involves technical matters¹⁴ best left to the expertise of the concerned agencies.

The Resolution also requires that the concerned agencies shall “submit [to the Court] their quarterly reports electronically x x x.”¹⁵ Thus, the directive for the concerned agencies to submit to the Court their quarterly reports is a continuing obligation which extends even beyond the year 2011.¹⁶

The Court is now arrogating unto itself two constitutional powers exclusively vested in the President. First, the Constitution provides that “executive power shall be vested in the President.”¹⁷ This means that neither the Judiciary nor the Legislature can exercise executive power for executive power is the exclusive domain of the President. Second, the Constitution provides that the President shall “have control of all the executive departments, bureaus, and offices.”¹⁸ Neither the Judiciary nor the Legislature can exercise control or even supervision over executive departments, bureaus, and offices.

Clearly, the Resolution constitutes an intrusion of the Judiciary into the exclusive domain of the Executive. In the guise of implementing the 18 December 2008 Decision through the Resolution, the Court is in effect supervising and directing the different government agencies and LGUs concerned.

In Noblejas v. Teehankee,¹⁹ it was held that the Court cannot be required to exercise administrative functions such as supervision over executive officials. The issue in that case was whether the Commissioner of Land Registration may only be investigated by the Supreme Court, in view of the conferment upon him by law (Republic Act No. 1151) of the rank and privileges of a Judge of the Court of First Instance. The Court, answering in the negative, stated:

To adopt petitioner's theory, therefore, would mean placing upon the Supreme Court the duty of investigating and disciplining all these officials whose functions are plainly executive and the consequent curtailment by mere implication from the Legislative grant, of the President's power to discipline and remove administrative officials who are presidential appointees, and which the Constitution expressly place under the President's supervision and control.

x x x

But the more fundamental objection to the stand of petitioner Noblejas is that, if the Legislature had really intended to include in the general grant of “privileges” or “rank and privileges of Judges of the Court of First Instance” the right to be investigated by the Supreme Court, and to be suspended or removed only upon recommendation of that Court, then such grant of privilege would be unconstitutional, since it would violate the fundamental doctrine of separation of powers, by charging this court with the administrative function of supervisory control over executive officials, and simultaneously reducing pro tanto the control of the Chief Executive over such officials.²⁰ (Boldfacing supplied)

Likewise, in this case, the directives in the Resolution are administrative in nature and circumvent the constitutional provision which prohibits Supreme Court members from performing quasi-judicial or administrative functions. Section 12, Article VIII of the 1987 Constitution provides:

SEC. 12. The members of the Supreme Court and of other courts established by law shall not be designated to any agency performing quasi-judicial or administrative functions.

Thus, in the case of In Re: Designation of Judge Manzano as Member of the Ilocos Norte Provincial Committee on Justice,²¹ the Court invalidated the designation of a judge as member of the Ilocos Norte Provincial Committee on Justice, which was tasked to receive complaints and to make recommendations for the speedy disposition of cases of detainees. The Court held that the committee performs administrative functions²² which are prohibited under Section 12, Article VIII of the Constitution.

As early as the 1932 case of Manila Electric Co. v. Pasay Transportation Co.,²³ this Court has already emphasized that the Supreme Court should only exercise judicial power and should not assume any duty which does not pertain to the administering of judicial functions. In that case, a petition was filed requesting the members of the Supreme Court, sitting as a board of arbitrators, to fix the terms and the compensation to be paid to Manila Electric Company for the use of right of way. The Court held that it would be improper and illegal for the members of the Supreme Court, sitting as a board of arbitrators, whose decision of a majority shall be final, to act on the petition of Manila Electric Company. The Court explained:

We run counter to this dilemma. Either the members of the Supreme Court, sitting as a board of arbitrators, exercise judicial functions, or as members of the Supreme Court, sitting as a board of arbitrators, exercise administrative or quasi judicial functions. The first case would appear not to fall within the jurisdiction granted the Supreme Court. Even conceding that it does, it would presuppose the right to bring the matter in dispute before the courts, for any other construction would tend to oust the courts of jurisdiction and render the award a nullity. But if this be the proper construction, we would then have the anomaly of a decision by the members of the Supreme Court, sitting as a board of arbitrators, taken therefrom to the courts and eventually coming before the Supreme Court, where the Supreme Court would review the decision of its members acting as arbitrators. Or in the second case, if the functions performed by the members of the Supreme Court, sitting as a board of arbitrators, be considered as administrative or quasi judicial in nature, that would result in the performance of duties which the members of the Supreme Court could not lawfully take it upon themselves to perform. The present petition also furnishes an apt illustration of another anomaly, for we find the Supreme Court as a court asked to determine if the members of the court may be constituted a board of arbitrators, which is not a court at all.

The Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands represents one of the three divisions of power in our government. It is judicial power and judicial power only which is exercised by the Supreme Court. Just as the Supreme Court, as the guardian of constitutional rights, should not sanction usurpations by any other department of the government, so should it as strictly confine its own sphere of influence to the powers expressly or by implication conferred on it by the Organic Act. The Supreme Court and its members should not and cannot be required to exercise any power or to perform any trust or to assume any duty not pertaining to or connected with the administering of judicial functions.²⁴

Furthermore, the Resolution orders some LGU officials to inspect the establishments and houses along major river banks and to “take appropriate action to ensure compliance by non-complying factories, commercial establishments and private homes with said law, rules and regulations requiring the construction or installment of wastewater treatment facilities or hygienic septic tanks.”²⁵ The LGU officials are also directed to “submit to the DILG on or before December 31, 2011 their respective compliance reports which shall contain the names and addresses or offices of the owners of all the non-complying factories, commercial establishments and private homes.”²⁶ Furthermore, the Resolution mandates that on or before 30 June 2011, the DILG and the mayors of all cities in Metro Manila should “consider providing land for the wastewater facilities of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) or its concessionaires (Maynilad and Manila Water Inc.) within their respective jurisdictions.”²⁷ The Court is in effect ordering these LGU officials how to do their job and even gives a deadline for their compliance. Again, this is a usurpation of the power of the President to supervise LGUs under the Constitution and existing laws.

Section 4, Article X of the 1987 Constitution provides that: “The President of the Philippines shall exercise general supervision over local governments x x x.”²⁸ Under the Local Government Code of 1991,²⁹ the President exercises general supervision over LGUs, thus:

SECTION 25. National Supervision over Local Government Units. ‒ (a) Consistent with the basic policy on local autonomy, the President shall exercise general supervision over local government units to ensure that their acts are within the scope of their prescribed powers and functions.

The President shall exercise supervisory authority directly over provinces, highly urbanized cities and independent component cities; through the province with respect to component cities and municipalities; and through the city and municipality with respect to barangays. (Emphasis supplied)

The Resolution constitutes judicial overreach by usurping and performing executive functions. The Court must refrain from overstepping its boundaries by taking over the functions of an equal branch of the government – the Executive. The Court should abstain from exercising any function which is not strictly judicial in character and is not clearly conferred on it by the Constitution.³⁰ Indeed, as stated by Justice J.B.L. Reyes in Noblejas v. Teehankee,³¹ “the Supreme Court of the Philippines and its members should not and can not be required to exercise any power or to perform any trust or to assume any duty not pertaining to or connected with the administration of judicial functions.”³²

The directives in the Resolution constitute a judicial encroachment of an executive function which clearly violates the system of separation of powers that inheres in our democratic republican government. The principle of separation of powers between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of government is part of the basic structure of the Philippine Constitution. Thus, the 1987 Constitution provides that: (a) the legislative power shall be vested in the Congress of the Philippines;³³ (b) the executive power shall be vested in the President of the Philippines;³⁴ and (c) the judicial power shall be vested in one Supreme Court and in such lower courts as may be established.³⁵

Since the Supreme Court is only granted judicial power, it should not attempt to assume or be compelled to perform non-judicial functions.³⁶ Judicial power is defined under Section 1, Article VIII of the 1987 Constitution as that which “includes the duty of the courts of justice to settle actual controversies involving rights which are legally demandable and enforceable, and to determine whether or not there has been a grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality of the government.” The Resolution contains directives which are outside the ambit of the Court's judicial functions.

The principle of separation of powers is explained by the Court in the leading case of Angara v. Electoral Commission:³⁷

The separation of powers is a fundamental principle in our system of government. It obtains not through express provision but by actual division in our Constitution. Each department of the government has exclusive cognizance of matters within its jurisdiction, and is supreme within its own sphere. But it does not follow from the fact that the three powers are to be kept separate and distinct that the Constitution intended them to be absolutely unrestrained and independent of each other. The Constitution has provided for an elaborate system of checks and balances to secure coordination in the workings of the various departments of the government. x x x And the judiciary in turn, with the Supreme Court as the final arbiter, effectively checks the other department in its exercise of its power to determine the law, and hence to declare executive and legislative acts void if violative of the Constitution.³⁸

Even the ponente is passionate about according respect to the system of separation of powers between the three equal branches of the government. In his dissenting opinion in the 2008 case of Province of North Cotabato v. Government of the Republic of the Philippines Peace Panel on Ancestral Domain (GRP),³⁹ Justice Velasco emphatically stated:

Separation of Powers to be Guarded

Over and above the foregoing considerations, however, is the matter of separation of powers which would likely be disturbed should the Court meander into alien territory of the executive and dictate how the final shape of the peace agreement with the MILF should look like. The system of separation of powers contemplates the division of the functions of government into its three (3) branches: the legislative which is empowered to make laws; the executive which is required to carry out the law; and the judiciary which is charged with interpreting the law. Consequent to actual delineation of power, each branch of government is entitled to be left alone to discharge its duties as it sees fit. Being one such branch, the judiciary, as Justice Laurel asserted in Planas v. Gil, “will neither direct nor restrain executive [or legislative action].” Expressed in another perspective, the system of separated powers is designed to restrain one branch from inappropriate interference in the business, or intruding upon the central prerogatives, of another branch; it is a blend of courtesy and caution, “a self-executing safeguard against the encroachment or aggrandizement of one branch at the expense of the other.” x x x

Under our constitutional set up, there cannot be any serious dispute that the maintenance of the peace, insuring domestic tranquility and the suppression of violence are the domain and responsibility of the executive. Now then, if it be important to restrict the great departments of government to the exercise of their appointed powers, it follows, as a logical corollary, equally important, that one branch should be left completely independent of the others, independent not in the sense that the three shall not cooperate in the common end of carrying into effect the purposes of the constitution, but in the sense that the acts of each shall never be controlled by or subjected to the influence of either of the branches.⁴⁰ (Emphasis supplied)

Indeed, adherence to the principle of separation of powers which is enshrined in our Constitution is essential to prevent tyranny by prohibiting the concentration of the sovereign powers of state in one body.⁴¹ Considering that executive power is exclusively vested in the President of the Philippines, the Judiciary should neither undermine such exercise of executive power by the President nor arrogate executive power unto itself. The Judiciary must confine itself to the exercise of judicial functions and not encroach upon the functions of the other branches of the government.

ACCORDINGLY, I vote against the approval of the Resolution.

ANTONIO T. CARPIO

Associate Justice

1Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), ), Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA), Department of Agriculture (DA), Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), Philippine National Police (PNP), Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), Department of Health (DOH), Department of Education (DepEd), and Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

2Resolution, p. 4.

3Resolution, p. 6.

4Resolution, p. 6.

5Resolution, p. 6-7.

6Resolution, p. 7.

7Resolution, p. 7.

8Resolution, p. 8.

9 Resolution, p. 8.

10Resolution, pp. 8.

11Resolution, p. 10.

12Resolution, p. 11.

13Resolution, p. 11.

14For instance, the Resolution orders the PPA to “include in its report the activities of the concessionaire that collects and disposes of the solid and liquid wastes and other ship-generated wastes, which shall state the names, make and capacity of the ships serviced by it since August 2003 up to the present date, the dates the ships docked at PPA ports, the number of days the ship was at sea with the corresponding number of passengers and crew per trip, the volume of solid, liquid and ship-generated wastes collected from said ships, the treatment undertaken and the disposal site for said wastes;” Resolution, pp. 7-8.

15Resolution, p.11.

16For example, the Resolution directs that “[i]n its quarterly report for the last quarter of 2010 and thereafter, MMDA shall report on the apprehensions for violations of the penal provisions of RA 9003, RA 9275 and other laws on pollution for the said period; Resolution, p. 10. (Emphasis supplied.)

17 Constitution, Art. VII, Sec. 1.

18 Constitution, Art. VII, Sec. 17.

19131 Phil. 931 (1968).

20Id. at. 934-935.

21248 Phil. 487 (1988).

22Administrative functions are “those which involve the regulation and control over the conduct and affairs of individuals for their own welfare and the promulgation of rules and regulations to better carry out the policy of the legislature or such as are devolved upon the administrative agency by the organic law of its existence.” Id. at 491.

2357 Phil 600 (1932).

24Id. at 604-605.

25Resolution, p. 5.

26Resolution, p. 6.

27Resolution, p. 6.

28 Emphasis supplied.

29Republic Act No. 7160.

30Manila Electric Co. v. Pasay Transportation Co., supra note 23.

31 Supra note 19.

32Id. at 936, citing Manila Electric Co. v. Pasay Transportation Co., 57 Phil. 600, 605 (1932).

33Constitution, Art. VI, Sec. 1.

34Constitution, Art. VII, Sec. 1.

35Constitution, Art. VIII, Sec. 1.

36J. Bernas, The 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines: A Commentary 828 (1996).

3763 Phil. 139 (1936).

38Id. at 156-157.

39G.R. Nos. 183591, 183752, 183893, 183951 & 183962, 14 October 2008, 568 SCRA 402.

40Dissenting Opinion, id. at 669-670. (Citations omitted)

41S. Carlota, The Three Most Important Features of the Philippine Legal System that Others Should Understand, in IALS Conference Learning from Each Other: Enriching the Law School Curriculum in an Interrelated World 177 <www.ialsnet.org/meeting/enriching/carlota.pdf> (visited 5 November 2010).