Professional Documents
Culture Documents
G.R. NO. 174129, July 5, 2010. Honesto Ferrer, Jr. vs. Mayor Sulpicio Roco, Jr. and Sangguniang Panglungsod of Naga
G.R. NO. 174129, July 5, 2010. Honesto Ferrer, Jr. vs. Mayor Sulpicio Roco, Jr. and Sangguniang Panglungsod of Naga
REMEDIAL LAW
Special Civil Action
Declaratory relief is defined as an action by any person interested in a deed, will, contract
or other written instrument, executive order or resolution, to determine any question of
construction or validity arising from the instrument, executive order or regulation, or statute, and
for a declaration of his rights and duties thereunder. The only issue that may be raised in such a
petition is the question of construction or validity of the provisions in an instrument or
statute.
It is settled that the requisites of an action for declaratory relief are: 1] the subject matter
of the controversy must be a deed, will, contract or other written instrument, statute, executive
order or regulation, or ordinance; 2] the terms of said documents and the validity thereof are
doubtful and require judicial construction; 3] there must have been no breach of the documents
in question; 4] there must be an actual justiciable controversy or the "ripening seeds" of one
between persons whose interests are adverse; 5] the issue must be ripe for judicial determination;
and 6] adequate relief is not available through other means or other forms of action or
proceeding.
In this case, the issue raised by petitioners is clearly not yet ripe for judicial
determination. Nowhere in the assailed resolutions and ordinance does it show that the public
respondents acted on private respondent’s application with finality. What appears therefrom is
that the application of private respondent for development permit has been endorsed to the
Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) for appropriate action, the latter being the
sole regulatory body for housing and land development.
Under the doctrine of primary administrative jurisdiction, courts cannot or will not
determine a controversy where the issues for resolution demand the exercise of sound
administrative discretion requiring the special knowledge, experience, and services of the
administrative tribunal to determine technical and intricate matters of fact. In other words, if a
case is such that its determination requires the expertise, specialized training and knowledge of
an administrative body, relief must first be obtained in an administrative proceeding before
resort to the courts is had even if the matter may well be within their proper jurisdiction.