G.R. No. 173044 - Freedom from Debt Coalition vs. Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System

On September 28, 2007, respondent 168 Shipping Lines, Inc. filed with MARINA Regional Office V an application for a Certificate of Public Convenience to operate M/V Star Ferry I on the Matnog–Allen route with 90 departures from Matnog and 86 from Allen.
PeAafrancia Shipping Corporation and Santa Clara Shipping Corporation, existing operators on the same route, intervened to oppose on grounds of (a) lack of Certificate of Berthing; (b) physically impossible sailing schedule; and (c) overtonnage.

MARINA RO V required respondent to file an amended application with workable schedule; respondent instead filed a pleading entitled “Adoption of Amended Schedule of Trips.”
On February 1, 2008, MARINA RO V denied due course to the application; respondent’s motion for reconsideration was denied.
Respondent appealed to the MARINA Administrator, who on August 8, 2008 reversed the RO V decision and granted the CPC; petitioners’ motion for reconsideration was denied by the Officer-in-Charge.

Petitioners filed a Rule 43 petition with the CA directly without appealing to the DOTC Secretary or the Office of the President; the CA dismissed for failure to exhaust administrative remedies.
Petitioners filed a motion for reconsideration, denied by the CA; they then filed this petition for review on certiorari.
Petitioners also filed a separate moratorium petition with MARINA to halt CPC grants on the same routes, prompting respondent’s forum‐shopping objection.

Did petitioners commit forum shopping by filing the moratorium petition while the CA Rule 43 petition was pending?
Must decisions of the MARINA Board in its quasi-judicial capacity be appealed first to the DOTC Secretary and then to the Office of the President before judicial review by the CA?