Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By
Carlo L. Cruz
Chapter 1
General Considerations
Nature
Administrative Law that branch of modern law under which the
executive department of the government, acting in a quasi-legislative
or quasi-judicial capacity, interferes with the conduct of the
individual for the purpose of promoting the well-being of the
community.
Administrative law is a recent development , being a consequence of
the ever increasing complexities of society and the proliferation of
problems of government that cannot readily or effectively be
addressed by the public agencies or solved by other disciplines of
public law.
It was felt that thelegislative and judicial departments no longer had
either the time or the needed expertise to attend to these new
problems.
Thus, the obvious solution was delegation of power.
Two major powers of the administrative agency:
1. Quasi-legislative authority or rule making power
2. Quasi-judicial power or adjudicatory function
Sources of Administrative Law
Chapter 2
Administrative Agencies
Definition
Administrative agency a body endowed with quasi-legislative and
quasi-judicial powers for the purpose of enabling it to carry out the
laws entrusted to it for enforcement or execution.
Administrative agency may be regarded as an arm of the legislature
insofar as it is authorize to promulgate rules. It may also be loosely
considered a court because it performs functions of a particular
judicial character, as when it decides factual and sometimes even
legal questions as an incident of its general power of regulation.
Creation and Abolition
The administrative body may be created by the Constitution or by a
Statute.
If created by the Constitution itself, the administrative body can be
altered or abolished only by Constitution. But where the body was
created only by statute, the legislature that breathed life into it can
amend or even repeal its charter, thereby resulting in its abolition
which is justified if made in good faith.
Chapter 3
Powers of Administrative Agencies
Chapter 4
The Quasi-Legislative Power
Chapter 5
The Quasi-Judicial Power
(a) The law itself must make violation of the administrative regulation
punishable;
(b) The law itself must impose and specify the penalty for the
violation of the regulation;
A. Jurisdiction
Jurisdiction may be simply defined as the competence of an office
or body to act on a given matter or decide a certain question.
Without jurisdiction, the determination made by the administrative
bodies are absolutely null and without any legal effect whatsoever.
It is the legislature that has the power to confer jurisdiction upon the
administrative body and so limit or expand its authority.
It can be said that each administrative body has its own peculiar
jurisdiction as conferred upon it by the specific provisions of its
charter.
The law may allow some administrative bodies to award certain kinds
of damages while denying the same power, for no apparent reason, to
other administrative bodies.
For example, the SEC and NLRC are allowed to award damages
virtually to the same extent as a court of justice. Yet similar
authority has not been conferred by its charter to NTC.
It is a well-settled principle that unless expressly empowered,
administrative agencies are bereft of quasi-judicial power.
1. Rules of Procedure
Where an administrative body is expressly granted the power of
adjudication, it is deemed also vested with the implied power to
precribe the rules to be observed in the conduct of its proceedings.
But to be valid, the rules must not violate fundamental rights or
encroach upon constitutional prerogatives.
the right to appear therein and present their side or refute the
position of opposing parties.
Nevertheless, there are instances when notice and hearing can
validly be omitted. Among the justifications for such omissions are
the urgency of immediate action (which does not preclude the
enjoyment of the right at a later time without prejudice to the person
affected) and the fact that the right had previously been offered but
not claimed.
1. Administrative Due Process
While administrative determinations of contested case are by their
nature judicial, there is no requirement for strict adherence to
technical rules as are observed in truly judicial proceedings.
It is a general rule that they are unrestricted by the technical or
formal rules of procedure which govern trials before a court. This
rule is applied to questions of evidence, pleading and other matters.
Nevertheless, it is essential that due process must be observed, for
the requirements of fair play are not applicable to judicial proceedings
only.
Cardinal rights or principles to be observed in administrative
proceedings:
a. the first of these rights is the right to a hearing;
b. the tribunal must consider the evidence presented;
c. the tribunal must have something to support its decision;
d. evidence must be substantial evidence relevant evidence
that a reasonable
mind may accept as adequate to support a
conclusion
e. the decision must be rendered on the evidence presented
at the hearing, or at least contained in the record and disclosed to
the parties;
D. Enforcement of Decision
In the absence of any statute providing for the enforcement of an
administrative determination, the same cannot be enforced except
possibly by appeal to the force of public opinion.
Chapter 6
Judicial Review
General Rules
An administrative decision may be appealed to the courts of justice
only if the Constitution or the law permits it or if the question to be
reviewed is a question of law.
E. Res Judicata
Methods of review
The methods of judicial review are prescribed by the Constitution,
statutes or the Rules of the Court. These methods may be specific or
general.
It is provided in RA No. 5434 that an appeal from a final award, order
or decisions of the Patent Office shall be taken by filing with said
body and with the Court of Appeals a notice of appeal within 15 days
from notice of such award, order or ruling, copies being served on all
interested parties.
The Administrative Code generally provides that an appeal from an
agency decision shall be perfected by filing with the agency within 15
days from receipt of a copy thereof a notice of appeal, and with the
reviewing court a petition for review of the order. Copies of the
petition shall be served upon the agency and all parties of record.
The petition shall contain a concise statement of the issues involved
and the grounds relied upon for the review, and shall be accompanied
with a true copy of the order appealed from, together with copies of
such material portions of the records as are referred to therein and
other supporting papers.
The Supreme Court instructed certain universally accepted axioms
governing judicial review through the extraordinary actions of
certiorari or prohibition of determinations of administrative officers or
agencies:
First, before said actions may be entertained, it must be shown that
all the administrative remedies prescribed by law or ordinance have
been exhausted; and,
Second, that the administrative decision may properly be annulled or
set aside only upon a clear showing that the administrative official or
tribunal has acted without or in excess of jurisdiction, or with a grave
abuse of discretion.
Doctrine of Primary Jurisdiction or Prior Resort
This view was abandoned in Calo vs. Fuertes, where it was held that
appeal to the President was the final step in the administrative
process and therefore a condition precedent to appeal to the courts.
In Bartulata vs. Peralta, however, the court reinstated the Demaisip
doctrine, again on the basis of alter ego justification.
Tan vs. Director of Forestry, thereafter revived Calo andagain required
appeal to the President as a prerequisite to an appeal of a Cabinet
member's decision to the courts of Justice.
D. Effect of Non-compliance
The failure to exhaust administrative remedies does not affect the
jurisdiction of the court and merely results in the lack of a cause of
action which may be invoked in a motion to dismiss.
If this ground to dismiss the court action is not properly or
reasonably invoked, the court may proceed to hear the case.
As previously noted, the court has the discretion to require the
observance of the doctrine of exhaustion of administrative remedies
and may, if it sees fit, dispense with it and proceed with the
disposition of the case.
Questions Reviewable
Two kinds of questions are reviewable by the courts of justice, to wit:
the question of fact and the question of law.
On the question of fact, review of the administrative decision lies in
the discretion of the legislature, which may or may not permit it as it
sees fit.
But when it comes to the question of law, the administrative decision
may be appealed to the courts of justice independently of legislative
permission or even against legislative prohibition. The reason is that
the judiciary cannot be deprived of its inherent power to review all