RAYO vs.

CFI BULACAN

Facts:
During the height of typhoon Kading, the respondent corporation
acting through its plant superintendent, Benjamin Chavez, opened
simultaneously all the three floodgates of the Angat Dam. As a direct
and immediate result, several towns in Bulacan where inundated and
the hardest hit was Norzagaray. About a hundred of its residents died
and properties worth million of pesos were destroyed. The petitioners,
who were among the many unfortunate victims of the man-caused
flood, filed eleven complaints for damages against the National Power
Corporation and the plant superintendent of Angat Dam. The
respondent corporation filed separate answers to each of those eleven
complaints and invoking in each answer a special and affirmative
defense that in the operation of the Angat Dam, it is performing a
purely governmental function, and it cannot be sued without the
express consent of the State. The petitioners opposed the prayer of the
respondent for dismissal of the case and contended that the
respondent corporation is performing not governmental but proprietary
functions and that under its own organic act, it can sue and be sued in
court.
Issue:
Whether respondent National Power Corporation performs a
governmental function with respect to the management and operation
of the Angat Dam; and
Whether the power of respondent National Power Corporation to sue
and be sued under its organic charter includes the power to be sued
for tort.
Held:
The Government has organized a private corporation, put money in it
and has allowed it to sue and be sued in any court under its charter.
The National Power Corporation, a government owned and controlled
corporation, has a personality of its own, distinct and separate from
that of the government. The charter provision that the National Power
Corporation can sue and be sued in any court is without qualification
on the cause of action and can include a tort claim. The petition is
granted.

Notes:

Government Owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCC) have a

personality of their own, separate and distinct from the government,
their funds, therefore although considered to be public in character,
are not exempt from garnishment.