G.R. No. 93891 – 272-A Phil. 66 – 195 SCRA 112 – Political Law – Constitutional Law – Powers of the State – Police Power – Due Process Requirement; General Welfare
The Pollution Adjudication Board was empowered by PD 984 (Pollution Control Law) to issue cease and desist orders against corporations causing pollution. The PAB is also allowed to issue temporary restraining orders against corporations suspected of causing pollutions.
In 1988, the PAB issued an ex parte cease and desist order against the Solar Textile Finishing Corporation after determining that it was dumping untreated contaminated waste water into the Tullahan River.
STFC filed a petition for certiorari questioning the validity of the order as it was issued without a trial being conducted; that it was wrong for the PAB to issue the order solely on the tests conducted but without conducting a trial before the cease and desist order was issued.
ISSUE: Whether or not the cease and desist order issued is valid.
HELD: Yes. The power granted to the PAB by PD 984 is a valid exercise of police power. The ordinary requirements of procedural due process may be dispensed with to yield to the necessities of protecting vital public interests. This is the State’s police power.
Ex parte cease and desist orders are permitted by law and regulations in cases like this because stopping the continuous discharge of waste water into the rivers and other inland waters of the Philippines cannot be made to wait until protracted litigation over the ultimate correctness or propriety of such orders has run its full course which may take several years. The relevant pollution control statute and implementing regulations were enacted and promulgated in the exercise of that pervasive, sovereign power to protect the safety, health, and general welfare and comfort of the public, as well as the protection of plant and animal life, commonly designated as the police power.
