Rez Kristofferjun Z.

Catedral
Section JD 1B
Constitutional Law 1

RAYO vs. CFI BULACAN

FACTS:

During the height of typhoon Kading, the respondent corporation acting through its plant
superintendent, Benjamin Chavez, opened simultaneously all the three floodgates of the Angat
Dam. As a direct and immediate result, several towns in Bulacan where inundated and the
hardest hit was Norzagaray. About a hundred of its residents died and properties worth millions
of pesos were destroyed. The petitioners, who were among the many unfortunate victims of the
man-caused flood, filed eleven complaints for damages against the National Power Corporation
and the plant superintendent of Angat Dam. The respondent corporation filed separate answers to
each of those eleven complaints and invoking in each answer a special and affirmative defense
that in the operation of the Angat Dam, it is performing a purely governmental function, and it
cannot be sued without the express consent of the State. The petitioners opposed the prayer of
the respondent for dismissal of the case and contended that the respondent corporation is
performing not governmental but proprietary functions and that under its own organic act, it can
sue and be sued in court.

ISSUE:

Whether respondent National Power Corporation performs a governmental function with respect
to the management and operation of the Angat Dam; and
Whether the power of respondent National Power Corporation to sue and be sued under its
organic charter includes the power to be sued for tort.

HELD:

The Government has organized a private corporation, put money in it and has allowed it to sue
and be sued in any court under its charter. The National Power Corporation, a government
owned and controlled corporation, has a personality of its own, distinct and separate from that of
the government. The charter provision that the National Power Corporation can sue and be sued
in any court is without qualification on the cause of action and can include a tort claim. The
petition is granted