G.R. No.

L-17821 November 29, 1963

PRIMITIVO LOVINA, and NELLY MONTILLA, plaintiffs-appellees,

vs.
HON. FLORENCIO MORENO, as Secretary of Public Works and Communications, and
BENJAMIN YONZON,defendants-appellants.

Gil R. Carlos and Associates for plaintiffs-appellees.

Office of the Solicitor General for defendants-appellants.

REYES, J.B.L., J.:

This is an appeal from a decision of the Court of First Instance of Manila (Branch X), in its Civil Case
No. 41639, enjoining the Secretary of Public Works and Communications from causing the removal
of certain dams and dikes in a fishpond owned by Primitivo and Nelly Lovina in the Municipality of
Macabebe Province of Pampanga, covered by T.C.T. No. 15905.

The cause started by a petition of numerous residents of the said municipality to the Secretary of
Public Works and Communications, complaining that appellees had blocked the "Sapang Bulati", a
navigable river in Macabebe, Pampanga, and asking that the obstructions be ordered removed,
under the provisions of Republic Act No. 2056. After notice and hearing to the parties, the said
Secretary found the constructions to be a public nuisance in navigable waters, and, in his decision
dated 11 August 1959, ordered the land owners, spouses Lovina, to remove five (5) closures of
Sapang Bulati; otherwise, the Secretary would order their removal at the expense of the respondent.
After receipt of the decision, the respondent filed a petition in the Court of First Instance of Manila to
restrain the Secretary from enforcing his decision. The trial court, after due hearing, granted a
permanent injunction, which is now the subject of the present appeal.

The position of the plaintiffs-appellees in the court below was that Republic Act No. 2056 is
unconstitutional because it invests the Secretary of Public Works and Communications with
sweeping, unrestrained, final and unappealable authority to pass upon the issues of whether a river
or stream is public and navigable, whether a dam encroaches upon such waters and is constitutive
as a public nuisance, and whether the law applies to the state of facts, thereby Constituting an
alleged unlawful delegation of judicial power to the Secretary of Public Works and Communications.

The objections of the appellees to the constitutionality of Republic Act No. 2056, not only as an
undue delegation of judicial power to the Secretary of Public Works but also for being unreasonable
and arbitrary, are not tenable. It will be noted that the Act (R.A. 2056) merely empowers the
Secretary to remove unauthorized obstructions or encroachments upon public streams,
constructions that no private person was anyway entitled to make, because the bed of navigable
streams is public property, and ownership thereof is not acquirable by adverse possession (Palanca
vs. Commonwealth, 69 Phil. 449).

It is true that the exercise of the Secretary's power under the Act necessarily involves the
determination of some questions of fact, such as the existence of the stream and its previous
navigable character; but these functions, whether judicial or quasi-judicial, are merely incidental to
the exercise of the power granted by law to clear navigable streams of unauthorized obstructions or
encroachments, and authorities are clear that they are, validly conferable upon executive officials
provided the party affected is given opportunity to be heard, as is expressly required by Republic Act
No. 2056, section 2.
It is noteworthy that Republic Act 2605 authorizes removal of the unauthorized dikes either as
"public nuisances or as prohibited constructions" on public navigable streams, and those of
appellees clearly are in the latter class.

The Court of First Instance found that "according to the location plan, Exhibit "C", the "Bulati creek,
on which dikes and dams in question were constructed was a mere estero and could not be
considered a navigable stream then."

That the creek was navigable in fact before it was closed was also testified to by the government
witnesses, whose version is corroborated as we have seen.

Finally, there being a possibility that when they purchased the property in question the appellees
Lovina were not informed of the illegal closure of the Bulati creek, their action, if any, against their
vendor, should be, and is hereby, reserved.

In resume, we rule:

(1) That Republic Act No. 2056 does not constitute an unlawful delegation of judicial power to the
Secretary of Public Works;

(2) That absence of any mention of a navigable stream within a property covered by Torrens title
does not confer title to it nor preclude a subsequent investigation and determination of its existence;

(3) That the findings of fact of the Secretary of Public Works under Republic Act No. 2056 should be
respected in the absence of illegality, error of law, fraud, or imposition, so long as the said, findings
are supported by substantial evidence submitted to him.

(4) That ownership of a navigable stream or of its bed is not acquirable by prescription.

WHEREFORE, the decision appealed from is reversed, and the writs of injunction issued therein are
annulled and set aside. Costs against appellees Lovina.

Bengzon, C.J., Padilla, Bautista Angelo, Barrera, Paredes, Regala and Makalintal, JJ., concur.
Dizon, J., took no part.