Title
Herdez vs. National Power Corp.
Case
G.R. No. 145328
Decision Date
Mar 23, 2006
Residents challenged NAPOCOR's power transmission project over health risks from electromagnetic radiation. Courts ruled injunctions valid, citing constitutional rights and lack of prior consultation, overriding PD 1818's prohibition.
hernandez
national power corp
residents

Case Summary (G.R. No. 145328)

Factual Background

The petitioners are residents of Dasmarinas Village whose homes lie in close proximity to the route of the NAPOCOR 230 kilovolt Sucat-Araneta-Balintawak Power Transmission Project. In 1996 NAPOCOR erected twenty-nine decagon-shaped steel towers approximately 53.4 meters in height to support overhead high tension cables traversing populated areas including Dasmarinas Village. Alarmed by perceived health risks allegedly associated with electromagnetic fields from high voltage lines, petitioners sought information, conducted research, and relied on published studies linking electromagnetic exposure to diseases such as cancer and leukemia. NAPOCOR engaged in meetings and correspondence with residents and members of Congress, and its president communicated several relocation or mitigation options and cost estimates in letters to Representative Arnulfo P. Fuentebella. Negotiations between petitioners and NAPOCOR reached an impasse over relocation versus easement widening.

Trial Court Proceedings

On 9 March 2000 petitioners filed a Complaint for Damages with Prayer for the Issuance of a Temporary Restraining Order and/or a Writ of Preliminary Injunction in Civil Case No. 00-352 before the Regional Trial Court of Makati. The trial court issued a temporary restraining order on 13 March 2000 to maintain the status quo and prevent energizing the line pending consideration of the petition, extended the restraint on 15 March 2000, and, after hearing, ordered on 3 April 2000 the issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction enjoining NAPOCOR from preparing, installing, energizing or transmitting high voltage current through the subject cables, subject to a bond of P5,000,000. The trial court grounded its exercise of injunctive authority on the perceived health risks to petitioners and held that Presidential Decree No. 1818 and related jurisprudence proscribing injunctions against infrastructure projects did not apply because the case implicated rights to health and questions of law.

Court of Appeals Decision

NAPOCOR petitioned the Court of Appeals for certiorari, invoking Presidential Decree No. 1818, and challenged both the TRO and the preliminary injunction. In its decision dated 3 May 2000 the Court of Appeals granted the petition, reversed and set aside the trial court orders of 13 March 2000 and 3 April 2000, and nullified the provisional restraints. The Court of Appeals relied on the apparent clear mandate of P.D. 1818 as reiterated in the Court’s Circulars to prohibit courts from issuing restraining orders in cases involving government infrastructure projects.

Issues Presented

The central issue presented to the Supreme Court was whether the trial court had jurisdiction to issue a temporary restraining order and a writ of preliminary injunction enjoining NAPOCOR from energizing and operating the contested transmission line despite the prohibition in Presidential Decree No. 1818. Subsidiary issues were whether petitioners established the probability of grave injustice or irreparable injury sufficient to warrant provisional relief under Rule 58, Section 3, Rules of Court, and whether the case concerned questions of law that remove it from the protective scope of P.D. 1818.

Petitioners' Contentions

Petitioners contended that TROs and preliminary injunctions address matters of extreme urgency where probable grave injustice and irreparable injury loom, and that their constitutional right to health under Article II, Section 15, 1987 Constitution and statutory protections requiring prior consultation under Section 27 of the Local Government Code were implicated. They argued that these questions were legal in nature and therefore not subject to the absolute bar of P.D. 1818, and that the trial court properly exercised its equitable powers to preserve the status quo pending determination of the main action for damages and declaratory relief.

Respondent's Contentions

NAPOCOR maintained that Presidential Decree No. 1818 and the Court’s implementing circulars deprived lower courts of jurisdiction to issue provisional remedies such as TROs and preliminary injunctions in cases involving government infrastructure projects, and that the trial court’s issuance of equitable relief improperly interfered with the timely completion of an essential government project. NAPOCOR invoked the circulars warning against indiscriminate issuance of injunctions and stressed the national interest in uninterrupted infrastructure implementation.

Supreme Court Ruling

The Supreme Court granted the petition, reversed the decision of the Court of Appeals dated 3 May 2000 and its resolution of 27 September 2000, and reinstated the trial court’s Order of 3 April 2000 in Civil Case No. 00-352. The Court ordered no pronouncement as to costs. The Court held that the prohibition in P.D. 1818 was not absolute and did not divest courts of authority to issue provisional relief where the controversy involves questions of law or constitutional rights, such as the right to health, or where extraordinary circumstances of extreme urgency and probability of irreparable injury exist.

Legal Basis and Reasoning

The Court began with the established rule that Presidential Decree No. 1818 aims to prevent the untimely disruption of government infrastructure projects by provisional remedies, as affirmed in prior cases such as Garcia v. Burgos and the Court’s circulars. The Court then reiterated the exception developed in its jurisprudence that P.D. 1818 bars injunctions only insofar as they seek to restrain administrative acts based on factual disputes or the exercise of technical discretion; it does not preclude judicial intervention on pure questions of law or constitutional issues. The Court found that petitioners raised veritable questions of law: whether their constitutionally protected right to health under Article II, Section 15, 1987 Constitution was imperiled and whether NAPOCOR failed to comply with the prior consultation requirement of Section 27 of the Local Government Code. These legal questions removed the case from the protective mantle of P.D. 1818 and vested the trial court with jurisdiction to issue provisional relief.

Evidentiary and Equitable Considerations

The Court observed that petitioners presented copies of studies linking electromagnetic fields to serious illnesses, a NAPOCOR brochure indicating mandated safe distances for power lines and a twenty-meter easement policy in another project, correspondence showing NAPOCOR’s own consideration of relocation options, and a privilege speech in Congress criticizing NAPOCOR’s safety and consultation practices. The Court found such indicia sufficient to show that petitioners’ health concerns were not imaginary and that the probability standard for injunctions under Rule 58, Section 3 — namely that the act complained of would probably work injustice or render the judgment ineffectual — was met. The Court emphasized that a preliminary injunction is a preservative remedy dependent on probability, not the final proof required for a permanent injunction.

Treatment of Court Circulars and RA 8975

The Court clarified that the Court’s Circulars (Circulars No. 2-91, No. 13-93, No. 68-94 and Administrative Circular No. 7-99) did not impose an absolute bar on injunctions but sought

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