Case Digest: G.R. No. 195217 Promulgated: January 13, 2021

NATIONAL POWER CORPORATION (NPC), Petitioner, v SPOUSES RUFO AND TOMASA LLORIN, represented by their ATTORNEY-IN-FACT, CORAZON CANDELARIA

Law: Criminal Law

Cited Law/Order: Sec. 8 of RA 9136

Issue: Unlawful Detainer, Eminent Domain, Ejectment Case

FACTS:

Spouses Llorin owned a 102,606-square meter parcel of land located in Brgy. San Felipe, Naga City.

Sometime in 1978, NPC occupied the property without the consent of spouses and started the construction and installation of 69 kV Naga-Tinambac power transmission lines, affecting a total of 10,500 sq. m. of the property.

NPC assures the spouses to give back the property and the structures were temporary. NPC refused the spouses demand.

ISSUE:

Whether or not action for unlawful detainer exist in this case

RULING:

No.

The property is devoted for public use.

Under RA 9136, TRANSCO has assumed the electrical transmission functions of the NPC, including the latter’s power of eminent domain necessary for the discharge of these functions.

Remedy of Unlawful Detainer is not available in cases of forcing a public utility to vacate property. Such reason is for the enactment of public policy and public necessity.

Instead, the proper remedy is filing for Ejectment.

Specifically, the following options of specific remedy follows:

A. dismiss the case

⁃ without prejudice to the landowner filing the proper action for recovery of just compensation and consequential damages

⁃ and direct the public utility corporation to institute the proper expropriation or condemnation proceedings and to pay the just compensation and consequential damages assessed

B. to continue with the case as if it were an expropriation case and determine the just compensation and consequential damages pursuant to Rule 67 (Expropriation) of the Rules of Court, if the ejectment court has jurisdiction over the value of the subject land.

The remedy left for the spouses is to claim for just compensation.

Lesson for this case:

In a land devoted for public use, only the claim for just compensation be enjoyed to the owner of the property.

If you want to contest, file immediately to the court for an objection.

Full text of the case: https://juanbatas.files.wordpress.com/2021/03/gr_195217_2021.pdf

Cited Jurisprudence:

National Transmission Corp. v. Bermuda Development Corp.