PROVINCE OF CAGAYAN, REPRESENTED BY HON. ALVARO T. ANTONIO, GOVERNOR, AND ROBERT ADAP, ENVIRONMENTAL AND NATURAL RESOURCES OFFICER, PETITIONERS, VS. JOSEPH LASAM LARA, RESPONDENT.

Province of Cagayan versus Lara

The Case

This is a petition for review on certiorari brought directly to the Supreme Court by the Province of Cagayan, represented by Governor Alvaro T. Antonio, and by Robert Adap, the Environmental and Natural Resources Officer, against Joseph Lasam Lara. The Province asks the Court to undo a permanent injunction issued by the Regional Trial Court of Tuguegarao City, which had restrained the provincial officials from disturbing Lara's quarrying operations. The case matters because it fixes a simple but examinable rule: a national permit to extract sand and gravel, even one accompanied by an environmental compliance certificate, does not by itself authorize quarrying. The operator must still obtain the governor's permit required by the Local Government Code and by the provincial ordinance. It is a study in the requisites of injunction and in the interplay between national mining authority and local government power.

Procedural History

Lara first filed an action for injunction against certain local officials who had stopped and impounded his trucks, and a writ of preliminary injunction was issued there, allowing him to restart operations. That case remained pending. When Governor Antonio later issued a stoppage order, Lara filed a second action for injunction and damages before the Regional Trial Court of Tuguegarao City, Cagayan, Branch 5. The trial court granted a writ of preliminary injunction, denied the Province's motion for reconsideration, and after pre-trial and the submission of memoranda, rendered a decision making the injunction permanent. Instead of appealing to the Court of Appeals, the Province went directly to the Supreme Court through a petition for review on certiorari under Rule 45, raising a pure question of law.

Facts

On the fourteenth of September 2007, Lara obtained an Industrial Sand and Gravel Permit from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, authorizing him to quarry in a twenty hectare area in Barangay Centro, Municipality of Peñablanca, Cagayan. He also obtained an Environmental Compliance Certificate from the Environmental Management Bureau.

On the third of January 2008, Lara's representative went to the Provincial Treasurer's Office to pay the extraction fee and related fees, but was told to first secure an order of payment from Robert Adap, the Environmental and Natural Resources Officer. Adap refused to issue the order despite repeated pleas, so Lara's counsel tendered and deposited 51,500 pesos with the Treasurer's Office. Lara began quarrying on the eleventh of January 2008, but that same day four trucks loaded with sand and gravel were stopped and impounded by local officials.

On the seventeenth of March 2008, Lara received a stoppage order dated the thirteenth of March 2008 from Governor Antonio, directing him to stop for three reasons: the permit was not in accordance with the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 and its rules; he failed to pay the sand and gravel fee under Provincial Ordinance Number 2005-07; and he failed to secure the necessary permits or clearances from the local government unit as required by the environmental compliance certificate. Lara then filed the present action for injunction and damages.

Issues

• Whether or not the trial court properly issued a permanent injunction restraining the provincial officials from stopping Lara's quarrying operations.
• Whether or not Lara had a clear legal right to conduct quarrying operations on the strength of his national permit and environmental compliance certificate alone, without the governor's permit.

Applicable Provisions

Section 138, paragraph 2, of Republic Act Number 7160, the Local Government Code of 1991, provides:

The permit to extract sand, gravel and other quarry resources shall be issued exclusively by the provincial governor, pursuant to the ordinance of the sangguniang panlalawigan.

This is the core provision: it vests the permit to extract quarry resources exclusively in the provincial governor, which is why the national permit alone cannot suffice.

Article H, Section 2H.04 of Provincial Ordinance Number 2005-07 of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Cagayan provides:

No person shall extract ordinary stones, gravel, earth, boulders and quarry resources from public lands or from the beds of seas, rivers, streams, creeks or other public waters unless a permit has been issued by the Governor.

This local ordinance implements the Code and makes the governor's permit a precondition before any extraction may begin in the province.

Ruling

The Court granted the petition. On the first issue, it held that an injunction issues only upon two requisites: the existence of a right to be protected, and acts violative of that right. Absent a clear legal right, the issuance of the injunctive relief constitutes grave abuse of discretion. Injunction does not protect contingent or future rights, and where the right is doubtful or disputed, injunction is not proper.

On the second issue, the Court held that to legally undertake a quarrying business, an entity must comply with the requirements imposed not only by the national government but also by the local government unit where the business is situated. Reading the Code and the ordinance together, the Court concluded that a governor's permit is a prerequisite before one can engage in quarrying in Cagayan. Lara admittedly failed to secure it. He therefore had no right to conduct his quarrying operations in the permit area, and was not entitled to any injunction. The Court found no need to resolve the necessity of a mayor's permit, since that was the main issue in the other pending case.

Doctrine

First, a writ of injunction requires a clear and existing legal right plus an act violating it; a doubtful or disputed right will not support the remedy, and irreparable damage without proof of an actual existing right is not a ground.

Second, the power to issue the permit to extract sand, gravel and other quarry resources belongs exclusively to the provincial governor under Section 138 of the Local Government Code, as implemented by the provincial ordinance. A national permit and an environmental compliance certificate do not dispense with the governor's permit. National and local requirements are cumulative, not alternative.

Disposition

The petition was granted, and the decision of the Regional Trial Court making the injunction permanent was reversed and set aside, so the Province of Cagayan prevailed.

Remember This

Memorize the line that a governor's permit is a prerequisite before one may engage in quarrying in the province, and that without it there is no clear legal right to protect by injunction. Examiners use this case to test the requisites of injunction and the cumulative application of national mining permits and local government permits.