MANILA ELECTRIC COMPANY, PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT, VS. CUSTOMS ARRASTRE SERVICE AND/OR BUREAU OF CUSTOMS AND/OR REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES, DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES.

Arriving from San Francisco,
the SS “Japan Bear” on March
3, 1963, discharged into the custody of the arras­tre
service in Manila operated by the
Bureau of Customs, two (2) boxes of printed matters, viz., valve charts, and
128 cartons of electric street light controls and spicing tape, consigned to
Manila Electric Company.  Of the ship­ment,
two (2) cartons of electric street light controls worth P1,873.98
were not delivered.

After demands for recovery of the loss were not sa­tisfied, the
Manila Electric Company filed a complaint be­fore the City Court of Manila
against the Customs Arras­tre Service and/or Bureau
of Customs and/or the Republic of the Philippines,
and obtained a judgment in its favor.

On appeal to the Court of First Instance of Manila, the defendants
moved to dismiss, after which they ans­wered, alleging non-suability.  Subsequently, plaintiff amended its complaint
to stress the allegations of defen­dants’ capacity to sue and be sued and its
prayer to hold defendants jointly and severally liable.

After hearing, the Court of First Instance on Novem­ber 4, 1965 dismissed the case
for the reason that the Republic of the Philippines,
the Bureau of Customs (a mere agency of the Republic), and the Arrastre Service (a unit of the Bureau of Customs), may not
be sued.

Appeal to Us has been taken by the plaintiff on its belief that
the Republic of the Philippines
in its opera­tion of the arrastre service through the
Bureau of Cus­toms, may be sued.

In Mobil Philippines Exploration, Inc. v. Customs Arrastre Service and Bureau of Customs, L-23129, December 17, 1966, We already declared that as part of the govern­mental
machinery, the Bureau of Customs, in operating the arrastre
service, does so as an incident of a prime go­vernmental function and as such
may not be sued.  The same holds true
with the Republic of the Philippines.

WHEREFORE, the decision appealed
from is hereby affirmed.  No costs.

SO ORDERED.

Reyes, JBL, Makalintal, Zaldivar, Sanchez, Ruiz Castro, Angeles, and Fernando, JJ., concur.

Concepcion C.J., and Dizon, J., are on
official leave.