G.R. No. 15870 - Visayan Refining Co. vs. Camus

Visayan Refining Company, Dean C. Worcester, and Fred A. Leas as petitioners, owners of severally different portions of the land known as the site of Camp Tomas Claudio.
Hon. Manuel Camus, Judge of the Court of First Instance of the Province of Rizal, and Hon. Quintin Paredes, Attorney-General of the Philippine Islands, as respondents.
The petition was an original application to the Supreme Court seeking a writ of certiorari or prohibition to arrest condemnation proceedings pending in the Court of First Instance of Rizal.

On September 13, 1919, the Governor-General directed the Attorney-General to commence condemnation proceedings to expropriate a tract of about 1,100,463 square meters at Paranaque, Rizal (Camp Tomas Claudio) for military and aviation purposes.
On September 15, 1919, the Attorney-General filed a complaint in the Court of First Instance of Rizal in the name of the Government of the Philippine Islands, impleading numerous defendants including the three petitioners.
The complaint prayed that the court provisionally fix the total value of the property at P600,000 and place the Government in immediate possession upon deposit of that sum.
On September 15, 1919, Judge Manuel Camus entered an order provisionally fixing the value at P600,000 and placing the plaintiff in possession, upon showing that a certificate of deposit for that sum had been delivered to the provincial treasurer.

The three owners interposed a demurrer in the Court of First Instance asserting that no Act of the Philippine Legislature authorized the exercise of eminent domain for military or aviation purposes.
Contemporaneously they moved to revoke the September 15 order granting provisional possession, alleging additionally that the P600,000 deposit had been made without legal authority.
The Insular Auditor informally communicated that the P600,000 deposit had been taken from the unexpe...(Subscriber-Only)

Whether the Government of the Philippine Islands, acting upon the initiative of the Governor-General and Attorney-General, could lawfully institute condemnation proceedings for military and aviation purposes without a special Act of the Philippine Legislature authorizing eminent domain for those specific uses.
Whether the Governor-General’s authority to direct initiation of expropriation required a separate legislative enactment for each expropriation or for the appropriation of funds to pay for specific parcels.

Whether the deposit of P600,000 taken from the unexpended balance of appropriations under Acts Nos. 2784 and 2785 for the Militia Commission was lawful when used as the provisional deposit required by Act No. 2826 to secure immediate possession for the Government.
Whether the statutory scheme for expropriation complied with constitutional guarantees, specific...(Subscriber-Only)