Compilation on the Latest Supreme Court Rulings concerning the Local Government Code and Municipal Corporations 2001

Rulings Local Government Code Bito-Onon vs Fernandez, 350 SCRA 732 The Liga ng mga Barangay is a government organization, being an association, federation, league or union created by law or by authority of law, whose members are either appointed or elected government officials. Liga ng mga Barangay is defined as an organization of all Barangays for the primary purpose of determining the representation of the liga in the sanggunians, and for ventilating, articulating and crystallizing issues affecting Barangay government administration and securing, through proper and legal means, solutions thereto. Memorandum Circular No. 97-193 of the Department of Interior and Local Government insofar as it authorizes the filing a petition for review of the decision of the Board of Lection Supervisors (BES) with the regulat courts in a post-proclamation electoral protest is of doubtful constitutionality. City of Quezon vs Lexber Incorporated, 354 SCRA 493 Requisites of valid municipal contract: 1. The local government units has the express, implied or inherent power to enter into the particular contract. 2. The conract is entered into by the proper deparment, board, committee, officer or agent. Unless otherwise provided by the Code, no contract may be entered into by the local government unit without prior authorixation by the Sanggunian concerned. 3. The contract must comply with certain substantive requirements, i.e. when expenditure of public funds is to be made, there must be an actual appropriation and a certificate of availability of funds. 4. The contract must comply with the formal requirements of written contracfts, e.g. the Statute of Frauds. When a contract is entered into without the compliance with the 1 st and 3rd requisites (above), the same is ultra vires and is null and void. Such contract cannot be ratified or validated. Ratification of defective municipal contracts is possible only when there is non-compliance with the second and/or the fourth requirements above. Ratification may either be express or implied. In City of Quezon vs Lexber Incorporated, it was held that PD 1445 does not provide that the absence of appropriation ordinance ipso facto makes a contract entered into by a local government unit null and void. Public funds may be disbursed not only pursuant to an appropriation law, but also in pursuance of other specific statutory authority. In this case, BP 337, the law which was then in force, empowered the Mayor

to represent the city in its business transactions and sign all warrants drawn on the city treasury and all bonds, contracts and obligations of the city. While the Mayor has power to appropriate funds to support the contracts, neither does BP 337 prohibit him from entering into contracts unless and until funds are appropriated therefor. By entering into the two contracts, Mayor Simon DID NOT usurp the city councils power to provide for the proper disposal of garbage and to appropriate funds therefor. The execution of contracts to address such a need is his statutory duty, just as it is the city councils duty to provide for such service. There is no provision in the law that prohibits the city mayor from entering into contracts for the public welfare unless and until there is a prior authority from the city council.

Public funds may be disbursed not only pursuant to an appropriation law, but also in pursuance of other specific statutory authority, i.e., section 84 of the President Decree No. 1445. While the Local Government Code of 1991 (Republic Act No. 7160) now requires that the mayors representation of the city in its business transactions must be upon authority of the sangguniang panglungsod or pursuant to law or ordinance, no such prior authority was required under the Local Government Code of 1983 also known as Batas Pambansa Blg 337. View that the power of the City Mayor of Quezon City under its charter to enter into contracts for basic services is hinged on an enabling ordinance. Navarro vs Court of Appeals, 355 SCRA 672 The reason behind the right given to a political party to nominate a replacement where a permanent vacancy occurs in the Sanggunian is to maintain the party representation as willed by the people in the election. The last vacancy in the Sanggunian refers to that created by the elevation of the member formerly occupying the next higher in rank which in turn also had become vacant by any of the causes already enumerated, and the term last vacancy is thus used in Section 45(b), Local Government Code, to differentiate it from the other vacancy previously created. Lina, Jr. vs. Pano, 364 SCRA 76 An ordinance which merely states the objection of the council to lotto is but a mere policy statement on the part of the local council which is not self-executing, and could not serve as a valid ground to prohibit the operation of the lotto system in the province. While a policy statement expressing the local governments objection to the lotto is valid, as it is part of the local governments autonomy to air its views which may be contrary to that of the national governments, this freedom to exercise contrary views does not mean that local governments may actually enact ordinances that go against the duly enacted by Congress. What the national legislature allows by law, such as lotto, a provincial board may bot disallow by ordinance or resolution.

In our system of government, the power of local government units to legislate and enact ordinances and resolutions is merely delegated power coming from congress. Ours is a unitary form of government, not a federal state. Section 2(c) and 27 of the Local Government Code (Republic Act No 7160) apply only to national programs and/or projects which are to be implemented in a particular local community lotto is neither a program nor a project of the national government but of a charitable institution, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), and it is far fetched to say that lotto falls within the contemplation of aforesaid legal provisions. Sta. Rosa Realty Development Corporations vs Court of Appeals, 367 SCRA 175 The authority of a municipality to issue zoning classification is an exercise of its police power, not the power of eminent domain.