Administrative Law

Chapters 1-3
Dhan Jhan Cayabo
Leizl A. Villapando
 TOPICS

• Chapter I – Introductory
• Chapter II – Powers of Administrative Agencies
• Chapter III – Power of Control, Supervision and
Investigation
 Intended Learning Outcome

• To know the history and evolution of administrative laws, the

powers of the administrative agencies as well as the power of
control, supervision and investigation vested to the executive
department and its agencies.
 Introductory

• “Administrative law” embraces all the law controls, or is intended to control,

the administrative operations of government.
• The chief concern of the administrative law is the protection of right, the
subject of which is the nature and the mode of exercise of administrative
power and the system of reliefs against administrative action.
 KINDS OF ADMINISTRATIVE LAW

• Administrative law is of four kinds:

a) Statutes setting up the administrative authorities;
b) The body of doctrines and decisions dealing with the creation, operation, and effect
of determinations and regulations of such administrative authorities;
c) Rules, regulations, or orders of such administrative authorities in pursuance of the
purposes for which administrative authorities were created or endowed;
d) Determinations, decisions, and orders of such administrative authorities in the
settlement of controversies arising in their particular fields.
• The administrative codes are general laws, and as between the codes and
special legislations on specific subject matters, the latter prevail as an
exception to the former.
• It is a basic principle that general legislation must give way to special
legislation on the same subject, and generally so interpreted as to embrace
only cases in which the special provisions are not applicable.
 ADMINISTRATIVE FRAMEWORK

• At the apex of the administrative framework of the republic of the Philippines,

as provided in the 1987 Administrative Code, is the Government of the Republic.
• The government of the Republic of the Philippines refers to the corporate
governmental entity through which the functions of government are exercised
throughout the Philippines, including save as the contrary appears from the
context, the various arms though which political authority is made effective in
the Philippines, whether pertaining to autonomous regions, the provincial, the
city, municipal, or barangay subdivisions or other forms of local government.
 ADMINISTRATIVE FRAMEWORK

• Included in the Government are agencies and instrumentalities.

• An agency of the government refers to any of the various units of Government,
including a department bureau, office, instrumentality, or government-owned or
controlled corporation, or a local government of a distinct unit.
• Instrumentality refers to the any agency of the National Government, not
integrated within the department framework, vested with special functions or
jurisdiction by law, endowed with some if not all corporate powers, administering
special funds, and enjoying operational autonomy, usually through a charter.
 ADMINISTRATIVE FRAMEWORK

• Agencies or instrumentalities of the Government are either incorporated or non-incorporated.

• Incorporated agencies or instrumentalities, sometime with and at other times without capital stock, are
vested by law with a juridical personality distinct from the personality of the Republic.
• Examples of these incorporated agencies or instrumentalities are the:
• National Power Corporation;
• Philippine Ports Authority;
• National Housing Authority;
• Philippine National Oil Company, etc.

• They are not vested with juridical personality distinct from the Republic and endowed by law with some if not
all corporate powers.
 ADMINISTRATIVE FRAMEWORK

• Incorporated and non-incorporated agencies or instrumentalities are all

agents or delegates of the Republic of the Philippines which is by itself, a
body corporate and juridical person vested with the full panoply of powers
and attributes which are compendiously described as “legal personality.”
 ADMINISTRATIVE FRAMEWORK

• Chartered institution refers to any agency organized or operating under a

specific character, and vested by law with functions relating to specific
constitutional policies or objectives. This term includes state universities and
colleges, and the monetary authority of the state.
 ADMINISTRATIVE FRAMEWORK

• The public officers and employees who perform the duties and exercise the
powers in the administrative set-up of the government are compendiously
called “administration”. The term “administration” refers to the aggregate
of those persons in whose hand the reins of government are from the
time being.
 CREATION AND ABOLITION OF AGENCIES

• Administrative agencies, boards and commission are public offices. The term “public office”
refers to the right, authority and duty created and conferred by law or enduring at the
pleasure of the appointing power, an individual is invested with some portion of the sovereign
functions of the government, to be exercised by that individual for the benefit of the public.
• A public office refers to either of two concepts, as a functional unit of government, such as
department or bureau or a position held or occupied by individual persons, whose functions
are defined by law or regulation.
• A public office is a public trust or responsibility , and embraces the idea of term, duration,
emoluments, powers and duties. All of them taken together constitute a public office.
 CREATION AND ABOLITION OF AGENCIES
• A public office is created by the Constitution or by law or by an officer or tribunal
to which the power to create the office has been delegated by the legislature.
• The Constitution established offices which perform administrative functions.
• These are the President, he being the Chief Administrative Officer;
• the Constitutional Commission namely:
• the Commission on Election,
• the Civil Service Commissions and the Commission in Audit;
• the Office of the Ombudsman;
• the National Economic and Development Authority;
• the Commission on Human Rights; and the National Police Commission.
 CREATION AND ABOLITION OF AGENCIES

• All administrative agencies or bodies other than those established by the

Constitution are created by statutes or by officers or tribunals authorized by
Congress to do so expressly or impliedly.
• All offices created by the legislature are wholly within the power of that
body and it may prescribe the mode of filling the office and the powers and
duties of the office holders, and, if it sees fit, abolish the office.
POWER TO REORGANIZE INCLUDES POWER
TO CREATE OR ABOLISH OFFICES
• The legislature usually exercises the power to create or abolish by delegating it to the
President or to another executive officer or body. The means by which legislature makes
the delegation is by authorizing reorganization.
• Reorganization is the process of restructuring the bureaucracy’s organizational and
functional set-up, to make it more viable in terms of the economy, efficiency,
effectiveness and make it more responsive to the needs of its public clientele as
authorized by law.
• The legislative power to reorganize and therefore to abolish offices—apply to all offices,
including lower courts, except only those created by the Constitution itself.
 REASONS FOR CREATION OF
ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCIES

The reasons why there has been a need for and a growing number of,
specialized administrative agencies are as follows:
1. To unclog court dockets. To relieve courts of the burden of resolving all
controversies, specialized agencies have been created to hear and decide
particular disputes.
 REASONS FOR CREATION OF
ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCIES
2. To meet the growing complexities of modern society. As problems of modern society multiply,
which can hardly be met by the legislature, administrative agencies are established to promptly
cope up with such problems.

3. To help in the regulation of ramified activities of a developed country.

4. To entrust to specialized agencies in specified fields with their special knowledge, experience,
and capability the task of dealing with problems thereof as they have the experience, expertise and
power of dispatch solutions.
 CLASSIFICATIONS

• 1. Agencies created to the government is offering some gratuity, grant

or special privileges like the defunct Philippine Veterans Board, Board on
Pensions for Veterans, Philippine Veterans Administration, GSIS, and SSS.
 CLASSIFICATIONS

• 2. Agencies set up to function in situations wherein the government is

seeking to carry on certain governmental functions, like the Bureau of
Immigration, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the Board of Special Inquiry
and Board of Commissioners, the Civil Service Commission, the Central
Bank.
 CLASSIFICATIONS

3. Agencies set up to function in situations wherein the government is

performing some business service for the public, like the Bureau of Posts,
the Postal Savings Bank, Metropolitan Waterworks, and Sewerage Authority,
Philippine National Railways, the Civil Aeronautics Administration.
 CLASSIFICATIONS

• 4. Agencies set-up to function in situations wherein the government is

seeking to regulate business affected with public interest, like the Fiber
Inspection Board, the Philippines Patent Office, Office of the Insurance
Commissioner.
 CLASSIFICATIONS

• 5. Agencies set up to function in situations where the government is seeking

under police power to regulate private business and individuals, like the
Securities and Exchange Commission, Board of Food Inspectors, the Board
of Review of Motion Pictures and the Professional Regulation Commission.
 CLASSIFICATIONS

• 6. Agencies set-up to function in situations wherein the government is

seeking to adjust individual controversies because of some strong social
policy involved, such as the National Labor Relations Commission, the Court
of Agrarian Relations, the Regional Offices of the Ministry of Labor, Bureau
of Labor Standards, Women and Minors Bureau.
 CLASSIFICATIONS

• 7. Agencies set up to function in situations where the government is seeking

to conduct investigations and gather evidence for information,
recommendation or prosecution of crimes, such as the Commission on
Human Rights, the National Bureau of Investigation and the Prosecutor’s
Office.
 CHAPTER II-Powers of Administrative Agencies

• The basic corollary principles of the allocation of powers into legislative, judiciary and
executive, are the separation of power and the system of checks and balances among
them, designed to prevent concentration of powers.
• As a rule, the doctrine of separation of powers prohibits the delegation of legislative
power, the vesting of judicial officers with non-judicial functions, as well as the investing of
non judicial officers with judicial powers.
• While no one branch is not to invade the domain of the other, no one branch can act
without any participation or check from the other branches, which the Constitution
recognizes and permits.
 Powers of Administrative Agencies

• Administrative agencies have powers or functions which are administrative

and ministerial in character as well as quasi-legislative or quasi-judicial
power, as may be conferred by the Constitution or by law. They have only
such powers as are expressly granted to them by law and those that are
necessarily implied in the exercise thereof.
• The two most important powers of administrative officers are the quasi-
legislative and the quasi-judicial powers. The first enables them to
promulgate implementing rules and regulations.
 VESTURE OF POWERS LIBERALLY
CONSTRUED
• It is settled principle of law that in determining whether an administrative
agency has certain powers, the inquiry should be from the law itself and the
authority given should be liberally construed in the light of the purposes for
which is was created, and that which is incidentally necessary to a full
implementation of the legislative intent should be upheld as being germane to
the law.
• Liberal construction is adopted to enable administrative agencies to discharge
their assigned duties in accordance with the legislative intent or purpose.
• The powers of executive or administrative agencies or officials are either
express and implied, or discretionary and ministerial or directory and
mandatory.
 EXPRESS AND IMPLIED POWERS

• Public officials possess powers not rights. There must be a grant of

authority, whether express or implied to justify any action taken by them.
•A public official exercises power within the law which grants it. The
government itself is merely an agency through which the will of state is
expressed and enforced.
• There must be a delegation of authority whether express or implied.
 GRANT OF JURISDICTON AND WHAT IS
IMPLIED THEREFROM

• Settled is the rule that jurisdiction to hear and decide cases, which involves
the exercise of adjudicatory power, is conferred only the Constitution or by
statute. It cannot be conferred by the Rules of Court.
• Jurisdiction over subject matter must exist as a matter of law and cannot be
fixed by agreement of the parties, acquired through or waived, enlarged or
diminished by, any act or omission; neither can it be conferred by
acquiescence of the tribunal.
• Jurisdiction cannot be implied from the language of the statute, in the absence of a
clear legislative intent to that effect. If the language of the law is clear as to the scope
of jurisdiction granted, it cannot be construed to include that which is not conferred.
• The Insurance Code, for instance, grants the Insurance Commissioner the power to
adjudicate claims and complaints not exceeding one hundred thousand persons in
any single claim, excluding interest, cost and attorney’s fees, involving any loss,
damage or liability for which an insurer may be answerable under any kind of policy
contract for insurance.
MINISTERIAL AND DISCRETIONARY POWERS

MINISTERIAL POWER
• A ministerial duty is one which is so clear and specific as to leave no room for
the exercise of discretion in its performance.
• A purely ministerial act of duty, in contradistinction to a discretionary act, is one
which an officer or tribunal performs in a given state of facts, in a prescribed
manner, in obedience to the mandate of legal authority, without regard to the
existence of is own judgement, upon the propriety or impropriety of the act
done.
• The distinction between ministerial and discretionary powers or duties is
important to determine what remedy may be availed of by an aggrieved
party against the non performance of duty by the officer.
• If the duty is ministerial, mandamus may lie to compel performance; if the
duty is discretionary, a petition for certiorari may lie where there is grave
abuse of discretion amounting to lack of jurisdiction on the part of the
official or administrative agency.
 DISCRETIONARY POWER

• As a general rule, discretion is the faculty conferred upon an official by which

he may decide a question either way and still be right.
• Discretion when applied to public functionaries, means a power or right
conferred upon them by law of acting officially, under certain circumstances,
uncontrolled by the judgement or consciousness of others.
• If the law imposes a duty upon a public officer and gives him the right to decide
how or when the duty shall be performed, such duty is discretionary and not
ministerial.
 DISCRETIONARY POWER

• A discretion entrusted to a public officer may not as a rule, be delegated. It

has been held that an officer to whom a discretion is entrusted cannot be
delegated.
• It has been held that an officer to whom a discretion as entrusted cannot
delegate it to another, the presumption being that the judgement and
discretion, and unless the power to substitute another in his place has been
given to him, he cannot delegate his duties to another.
 DISCRETIONARY POWER

• Discretion means sound discretion exercised not arbitrarily or willfully, but

with regard to what is right and equitable under the circumstances and the
law and directed by officer’s reason and conscience to just result.
• In the absence of arbitrariness or grave abuse of discretion to decide a
question may decide the question either way and still be right and his
decision is not subject to the contrary judgment or control of others.
 MANDATORY AND PERMISSIVE DUTIES

• The powers and duties of public officers or administrative agencies may also
be classified as mandatory or permissive. The question as whether a duty
or power vested in an official or administrative agency is mandatory or
permissive depends upon the kind of statute which granted such powers.
MANDATORY AND DIRECTORY POWERS OR
DUTIES

• A mandatory statute is a statute which commands either positively that

something be done or performed in a particular way, or negatively that
something be done, leaving the person concerned no choice on the matter
except to obey.
MANDATORY AND DIRECTORY POWERS OR
DUTIES

• A directory statute is a statute which is permissive or discretionary in

nature and merely outlines the act to be done in such a way that no injury
can result from ignoring it or that its purpose can be accomplished in a
manner other than that prescribed and substantially the same result
obtained.
 WHEN MANDATORY OR DIRECTORY

• In determination of this questions, the primary object is to ascertain

legislative intent. The legislative intent must be obtained from all
surrounding circumstances, and the determination does not depend on the
form of the statute.
• Consideration must be given to the entire statute, its object, purpose,
legislative history, and the consequences which would result from construing
it one way or the other, and the stature must be construed in connection
with other related statutes.
 TEST TO DETERMINE NATURE OF STATUTE
AND THAT OF POWER

• The test generally employed to determine whether a statute is mandatory or

directory or that of the power vested by it is to ascertain the consequences that
will follow in case the statute requires is not done or what it forbids is performed.
• Whether a statutory requirement is mandatory or directory depends on its
effect. If no substantial rights depend on it and no injury can result from
ignoring it; and the purpose of the legislature can be accomplished in a manner
other than that prescribed and substantially the same results obtained, then the
statute will generally be regarded as directory; but if not, it will be mandatory.
 ERRORS IN EXERCISE OF POWERS

• GOVERNMENT NOT BUND BY ERRORS OF PUBLIC OFFICERS

• The government can do no wrong. It authorizes only legal acts by its officers. Its officers and
agents do wrong or commit unauthorized acts. And when they do, they are not errors or
acts of the government. For this reason, the government is never estopped by such mistake
or error.
• Neither doe is it bar future action in accordance with law. If the mistake or error causes
prejudice to another and it is done in bad faith or beyond he scope of his authority, he alone
is liable therefor and he cannot invoke the non-suability of the state as a defenses against
his personal liability.
 GOVERNMENT IS NOT ESTOPPED BY THE
MISTAKE OF ITS OFFICERS

• It is a familiar rule that erroneous application and enforcement of the law by

public officers do not block subsequent correct application of the statute
and that the government is never estopped by mistake or error on the party
of its agent.
• In other words, the government can subsequently correct the mistake or the
erroneous application of the law. A person requires no vested right in such
mistake.
 PRESUMPTION OF REGULARITY

• Government officials are presumed to perform their functions with

regularity and strong evidence is necessary to rebut this presumption.
Under the law of public officers, acts done in the enforcement of official
duties are protected by the presumption of good faith, and even mistakes
committed by such public officers are not actionable as long as it is not
shown that they were motivated by malice or gross negligence amounting
to bad faith.
Chapter III – Power of Control, Supervision
and Investigation
 Generally

• The President and other executive or administrative agencies or

bodies are granted powers by the constitution to enforce laws,
policies, and objectives provided in statutes creating them.
Among such powers are those of control, supervision and
investigation.
 Executive power of the President

• The President is the Chief Administrative Officer of the Government.

• In Marcos vs. Manglapus the Supreme Court summed up executive power
- The power of control over all executive departments, bureaus and offices
- The power to execute the law
- Appointing power
- Powers under the commander-in-chief clause
- Power to grant reprieves, commutations and pardons
- Power of Amnesty with the concurrence of Congress
- Power to contract or guarantee foreign loans
-Power to enter into treaties or international agreements
- Power to submit the budget to the congress
- Power to address the Congress
 Presidents Power of Control
• Section 17. Article VII of the 1987 Constitution provides that the "President
shall have control of all the executive departments, bureaus, and offices. He
shall ensure that the laws be faithfully executed.".
• Power of control means his power to alter or modify or nullify or set aside
what a subordinate officer had done in the performance of his duties and to
substitute his judgment with that of the latter.
• The presidential power of control over the executive branch of government
extends to all executive officers from cabinet secretary to the lowliest clerk
in the executive department. He is the Chief Executive, the head of
government and the chief administrative officer.
• The President, in the exercise of the powers of control, can do what any of
his cabinet secretary can lawfully do as conferred by law.
 Alter Ego

• Executive department secretaries act in their capacity as alter ego to the

President and cannot disregard orders from the chief executive.
 Doctrine of qualified political agency
• Under this doctrine, all executive and administrative organizations are
adjuncts of the Executive Department, the heads of the various executive
departments are assistants and agents of the Chief Executive, and, except in
cases where the Chief Executive is required by the Constitution or law to act
in person or the exigencies of the situation demand that he act personally,
the multifarious executive and administrative functions of the Chief
Executive are performed by and through the executive departments, and
the acts of the Secretaries of such departments, performed and
promulgated in the regular course of business, are, unless disapproved or
reprobated by the Chief Executive, preemptively the acts of the Chief
Executive.
 By authority of the President.

• The Executive Secretary or his Deputy or Assistant Executive Secretary or

any cabinet secretary, who acts and signs “By Authority of the President,”
acts not for himself but for the President. Thus, acts or contracts executed
by the Executive or Deputy Executive Secretary "By Authority of the
President” are presumed valid and performed in behalff of the President and
should thus be accorded due respect.
• Such acts are not subject to review by the courts in view of the principle of
separation of powers which accords co-equal status to the three great
branches of the government, absent any showing that the President, in
doing so, acted with grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess
of jurisdiction.
Limitations on the President's control power.

(1) the abolition or creation of an executive office,

(2) the suspension or removal of career executive officials or y employees
without due process of law, and
(3) the setting aside, modification, or supplanting of decisions of quasi-judicial
agencies, including that of the Office of the President, on contested cases that
have become final pursuant to law or to rules and regulations promulgated to
implement the law.
• The President's power of control applies to acts of a subordinate official and
not to the official who performs the acts. He may not, by his control power,
suspend or remove the official without due process of law, except those
officials who serve at his pleasure, such as cabinet secretaries (Ang-Angco v.
Castillo).
• The President's power of control does not apply to reviewing, modifying or
setting aside a decision of a subordinate official in the exercise of his quasi-
judicial power after the decision has become final pursuant to law or the
rules issued to implement it which prescribes the period of appeal
(Camarines Norte Electric Cooperative, Inc. v. Torres).
• Power of control also does not apply over final decisions of the office of
the President.
 President's Power of supervision

• The power to see that the officials concerned perform their duties, and if
they later fail or neglect to fulfill them, to take such action or steps as
prescribed by law to make them perform their duties.
• The President shall “exercise general supervision over all local government.
• The power of general supervision granted the President, in the absence of
any express provision of law, may not generally be interpreted to mean that
he, or his alter ego, the Secretary of Finance, may direct the form and
manner in which local officials shall perform or comply with their duties."
(Rodriguez v. Montinola)
• Presidential power over local governments is limited by the Constitution to
the exercise of general supervision 'to ensure that local affairs are
administered according to law. The general supervision is exercised by the
President through the secretary of Local Government (Taule v. Santos).
 Control, supervision and review by other
executive officials
• The power of control, means the power of an officer to alter, modify or
nullify or set aside what a subordinate officer had done in the performance
of his duties and to substitute the judgment of the former for that of the
latter.
• Supervision means overseeing or the power or authority of an officer to see
that their subordinate officers perform their duties.
• Power of supervision does not allow the superior to annul the acts of the
subordinate, for that comes under the power of control.
• Review is a reconsideration or re-examination for purposes of correction. It
is exercised to determine whether it is necessary to correct the acts of the
subordinate.
• Under the 1987 Administrative Code, supervision and control include only
the authority to:
(a) act directly whenever a specific function is entrusted by law or regulation to
a subordinate;
(b) direct the performance of duty; restrain the commission of acts;
(c) review, approve, reverse or modify acts and decisions of subordinate
officials or units;
(d) determine priorities in the execution of plans and programs; and
(e) prescribe standards, guidelines, plans and programs.
• Specifically, administrative supervision is limited to the authority of the
department or its equivalent to:
(1) generally oversee the operations of such agencies and insure that they are
managed effectively, efficiently and economically but without interference
with day-to-day activities;
(2) require the submission of reports and cause the conduct of management
audit, performance evaluation and inspection to determine compliance with
policies, standards and guidelines of the department;
(3) take such action as may be necessary for the proper performance of official
functions, including rectification of violations, abuses and other forms of mal-
administration;
(4) review and pass upon budget proposals of such agencies but may not
increase or add to them.
• Where the law confers upon a department secretary supervision and control
over subordinate officers, the department head can modify, nullify or set
aside the decision of the subordinate officer and can even directly exercise
the powers granted the latter 
• The department secretary's supervision and control over all bureaus and
offices under his jurisdiction is limited to the bureaus and officers under him,
but does not extend to agencies attached to the department.
 B. Power of Investigation

• The investigatory powers of some agencies are limited to only information

gathering, as basis to recommend appropriate action by other
government agencies or to focus public opinion on matters of vital concern,
like the Human Rights Commission; other agencies are granted
investigatory powers for prosecution purposes (public prosecutor,
Ombudsman); still others exercise Investigatory powers in aid in the
exercise of other powers granted them, like the Securities and Exchange
Commission, in the regulation of private corporations. The enabling act
defines the extent of such investigatory powers.
 Notice and hearing in investigation.

Denial of notice and hearing in investigation is a violation of right to due

process. However, if the law is silent on the matter, the question as to whether
or not a person who may probably be affected or called to answer certain
questions in the exercise of investigative powers of officials or administrative
agencies is entitled to due process or to notice and hearing depends upon the
stage during which the investigation is conducted and the possible
consequences to him of the outcome of such investigation.
 Executive power of investigation.

As chief administrative officer, the President may make investigations, not

only in proceedings of a legislative or judicial nature, but also in proceedings
whose sole purpose is to obtain information upon which future action of a
disciplinary, administrative, prosecutory, legislative or judicial nature may be
taken (Evangelista v. Jarencio).
• The President's investigatory power emanates from his power of
supervision and control over all executive departments, bureaus, and
offices; his power of supervision over local government units; and his power
of appointment of presidential appointees, which are conferred upon him by
the Constitution.
• Pursuant to Sec. 64(c) of the Revised Administrative Code, the President has
the power to create a Presidential Agency to conduct investigations. Thus,
he issued Executive Order No. 4 dated January 7. 1966 creating the
Presidential Agency on Reforms and Government Operations (PARGO) with
the following functions and responsibilities:
b. To investigate all activities involving or affecting immoral practices, graft
and corruption, smuggling (physical or technical), lawlessness, subversion,
and all other activities which are prejudicial to the government and the
public interests, and to submit proper recommendations to the President of
the Philippines.
e. To investigate cases of graft and corruption and violations of Republic Act
Nos. 1379 and 3019, and gather necessary evidence to establish prima facie,
acts of graft and acquisition of unlawful amassed wealth.
h. To receive and evaluate, and to conduct fact finding investigations of sworn
complaints against the acts, conduct or behavior of any public official or
employee and to file and prosecute the proper charges with the appropriate
agency.
• The President empowered PARGO to summon witnesses by subpoena or
subpoena duces tecum, administer oaths, take testimony or evidence
relevant to the investigation.
• In Evangelista u Jarencio the issue raised is whether the Agency, acting thru
its officials, has the authority to issue subpoenas in its conduct of fact
finding investigations not in connection with quasi-judicial or adjudication
functions.
• A subpoena meets the requirements for enforcement if the inquiry is: (1)
within the authority of the agency (2) the demand is not too indefinite; and
(3) the information is reasonably relevant.
 Investigatory powers, as incidents of main
function.
• Most administrative agencies which have been granted by law with
executive, quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial powers have also investigatory
powers in aid or as incidents of the exercise of such powers, as means to
make the performance of the latter effective.
• What is an investigatory power?
• This power allows the administrative body to inspect the records and
premises, and investigate the activities, of persons or entities coming under
its jurisdiction, or require disclosure of information by means of accounts,
records, reports, testimony of witnesses, production of documents, or
otherwise.
• Power of investigation consists in gathering, organizing, and analyzing
evidence
 Investigatory power as main function.
• An investigatory body with the sole power of investigation does not exercise judicial
functions and its power is limited to investigating the facts and making findings in respect
thereto. The test whether an administrative body is exercising judicial functions or merely
investigatory functions is: adjudication signifies the exercise of power and authority to
adjudicate upon the rights and obligations of the parties before it. If the only purpose of
investigation is to evaluate evidence submitted before it based on facts and
circumstances presented to it, and if the agency is not authorized to make a final
pronouncement affecting the parties, then there is an absence of judicial discretion and
judgment.
• Two examples, namely, the Commission on Human Rights and the National Bureau of
Investigation.
• The CHR may refer the results of its investigation to the DOJ for possible presecution of
crimes involving civil and political rights. In comparison the NBI is the same. It undertakes
investigation of crimes upon its own initiative and as public welfare may require. It
renders assistance when requested in the investigation or detection of crimes.
 Investigatory powers of the Ombudsman.

• The Office of the Ombudsman is a creation of the Constitution. The

Ombudsman is the protector of the people against abuses of government
officials and employees. Its functions are as follows: investigatory power;
prosecutory power; public assistance functions; authority to inquire and
obtain information; and function to adopt, institute  and implement
preventive measures. These powers are provided in the Constitution and in
R.A. no. 6770.
THANK YOU!