[G.R. No. [Link] 29, 1956.
]
LEOPOLDO T. BACANI and MATEO A. MATOTO,
Plaintiffs-Appellees,
vs.
NATIONAL COCONUT CORPORATION, ET AL.,Defendants, NATIONAL COCONUT
CORPORATION and BOARD OF LIQUIDATORS,
Defendants-Appellants.
FACTS:
Herein petitioners are stenographers in Branch VI of the CIF Manila. During the pendency of
Civil Case No. 2293 of said court, entitled Francisco Sycip vs. National Coconut Corporation,
Assistant Corporate Counsel Federico Alikpala, counsel forDefendant, requested said
stenographers for copies of the transcript of the stenographic notes taken by them during
the hearing. Plaintiffs complied with the request by delivering to Counsel Alikpala the
needed transcript containing 714 pages and thereafter submitted to him their bills for the
payment of their fees. The National Coconut Corporation paid the amount of P564 to
Leopoldo T. Bacani and P150 to Mateo A. Matoto for said transcript at the rate of P1 per
page. Upon inspecting the books of this corporation, the Auditor General disallowed the
payment of these fees and sought the recovery of the amounts paid. On January 19, 1953,
the Auditor General required the Plaintiffs to reimburse said amounts on the strength of a
circular of the Department of Justice wherein the opinion was expressed that the National
Coconut Corporation, being a government entity, was exempt from the payment of the fees
in question. On February 6, 1954, the Auditor General issued an order directing the Cashier
of the Department of Justice to deduct from the salary of Leopoldo T. Bacani the amount of
P25 every payday and from the salary of Mateo A. Matoto the amount of P10 every payday
beginning March 30, 1954. To prevent deduction of these fees from their salaries and secure
a judicial ruling that the National Coconut Corporation is not a government entity within the
purview of section 16, Rule 130 of the Rules of Court, this action was instituted in the Court
of First Instance of Manila.
ISSUE:
Whether National Coconut Corporation is a government entity and exempted from the
payments.
HELD:
NO. Discussing, there are two-fold functions of the government namely: constituent and
ministrant. The constituent functions refers to the bonds of society and are compulsory in
nature, while ministrant is more on public welfare like public works, education, charity,
health and safety. From such, we may infer that there are functions which our government
is required to exercise to promote its objectives as expressed in our Constitution and which
are exercised by it as an attribute of sovereignty, and those which it may exercise to
promote merely the welfare, progress and prosperity of the people.
The NCC has that function because the corporation promotes certain aspects of the
economic life of the people.
In short, NCC belongs to what we call the government owned and controlled corporation
which is governed by Corporation Law.
Albeit the NCC performs governmental functions for the people’s welfare, however, it was
given a corporate power separate and distinct from our government, for it was made
subject to the provisions of our Corporation Law in so far as its corporate existence and the
powers that it may exercise are concerned. To recapitulate, we may mention that the term
“Government of the Republic of the Philippines” used in section 2 of the Revised
Administrative Code refers only to that government entity through which the functions of
the government are exercised as an attribute of sovereignty, and in this are included those
arms through which political authority is made effective whether they be provincial,
municipal or other form of local government .
