Cordillera Broad Coalition vs COA G.R. No. 79956. January 29, 1990

 -CASE DIGEST-

SUBJECT: LAW ON PUBLIC CORPORATION

Cordillera Broad Coalition vs COA

G.R. No. 79956. January 29, 1990

Topic: The creation of Administrative Region belongs to the President

FACTS:

President Cory Aquino issued Executive Order No. 220 on July 15, 1987 in the exercise of her legislative powers. It created the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), which covers five provinces and one city (Abra, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga-Apayao and Mt. Province and Baguio City). According to the EO, CAR was created to accelerate economic and social growth in the region and to prepare for the establishment of the autonomous region in the Cordilleras.

 

Petitioners argue that by issuing E.O. No. 220 the President, in the exercise of her legislative powers prior to the convening of the first Congress under the1987 Constitution, has virtually pre-empted Congress from its mandated task of enacting an organic act and created an autonomous region in the Cordilleras. During the pendency of this case, R.A. 6766, providing for an Organic Act for the Cordillera Autonomous Region was enacted and signed into law. No plebiscite was yet held prior to this date.

 

ISSUE: The constitutionality of EO No. 220 is being assailed on the primary ground that it pre-empts the enactment of an organic act by the Congress and the creation of the autonomous region in the Cordilleras.

 

RULING: EO 22O is not unconstitutional. What it actually envisions is the consolidation and coordination of the delivery of services of line departments and agencies of the National Government in the areas covered as a step preparatory to the grant of autonomy to the Cordilleras. It does not create the autonomous region contemplated in the Constitution. It merely provides for transitory measures in anticipation of the enactment of an organic act and the creation of an autonomous region.

 

President saw it fit to provide for some measures to address the urgent needs of the Cordilleras in the meantime that organic act had not yet been passed. The transitory nature of the CAR does not necessarily mean that it is, an interim autonomous region in the Cordilleras. The Constitution provides for a basic structure of government in the autonomous region composed of an elective executive and legislature and special courts with personal, family and property law jurisdiction [Art. X, sec. 18].

 

E.O. No. 220 did not establish an autonomous regional government. It merely created a region, covering a specified area, for administrative purposes. CAR is not a public corporation or a territorial and political subdivision. It does not have a separate juridical personality, unlike provinces, cities and municipalities. Neither is it vested with the powers that are normally granted to public corporations. CAR is in the same genre as the administrative regions created under the Reorganization Plan. The CAR may be considered as a regional coordinating agency of the National Government, similar to the regional development councils which the President may validly create.

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