MANUEL REGALADO, ET AL., PETITIONERS AND APPELLANTS, VS. THE PROVINCIAL CONSTABULARY COMMANDER OF NEGROS OCCIDENTAL, RESPONDENT AND APPELLEE.

Petitioners are engaged in the deep-sea fishing business. They used
to buy ice from an ice plant in Eacolod City to be sent to Cadiz,
Occidental Negros, for use in said business. Complying with the request
made by the Public Service Commission, the respondent Provincial
Commander of the Philippine Constabulary in Occidental Negros prevented
the entry into Cadiz of the ice thus bought by petitioners. For this
reason the latter filed in the Court of First Instance of said province
the present action for injunction. Their prayer for the issuance of
writ of preliminary injunction against respondent was granted, but
after trial upon an agreed stipulation of facts, the court dismissed
the case and dissolved the aforesaid preliminary writ. Thereupon
petitioners interposed the present appeal, claiming that said court
erred in holding1 that it had no jurisdiction to grant an injunction
against respondent and,. consequently, in dismissing the case.

Inasmuch as it is not denied that respondent, in preventing the
entry into Cadiz of the ice purchased by petitioners in Bacolod City,
was merely enforcing an order of the Public Service Commisison upon the
latter’s request, it seems clear that an injunction issued against him
would in effect be one against said Commission. In fact, the latter
should have been made a party defendant. We believe, therefore, that in
dismissing” the case the lower court did not commit any error because
we have held heretofore that a Court of First Instance has no authority
to issue an injunction against the Public Service Commission or any
other court or semi judicial body of equal rank (Iloilo Commercial vs.
Public Service Commission, 56 Phil., 38).

Moreover, for practical purposes, the injunction sought by
petitioners has already become unnecessary considering that in G. R.
No. L-15300 ^[*] filed by the
same petitioners against the same Provincial Commander of the
Philippine Constabulary in Occidental Negros and other parties—an
action originally instituted in this Court—we declared void the order
of the Public Service Commission herein in question and issued a final
injunction against therein respondents restraining them from in any
manner enforcing the same.

Wherefore, the decision appealed from is affirmed, with costs.

Bengzon, C. J., Padilla, Bautista Angelo, Labrador, Concepcion, Reyes, J. B. L., Barrera, Paredes, and De Leon, JJ., concur.

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^[*] 108 Phil., 27; 58 Off. Gaz., [27] 4856.