KALIPUNAN NG DAMAYANG MAHIHIRAP, INC. V.

ROBREDO
Facts: This is a petition for prohibition and mandamus to enjoin the public respondents from evicting the
petitioners from their dwellings in San Juan, Navotas and Quezon City without any court order. It
primarily seeks to declare as unconstitutional Sec. 28 (a) and (b) of RA 7279 (Urban Development
Housing Act), which authorizes evictions and demolitions under certain circumstances without any court
order.

Issue: Whether or not Sec. 28 (a) and (b) of RA 7279 (Urban Development Housing Act) violates Art. 3,
Sec. 6 of the Constitution which prohibits impairment of liberty of abode without court order.
Ruling: No. There is no need to examine constitutionality of Sec 28 (a) and (b) of RA 7279 in light of Art.
3, Sec. 1 & 6 of the 1987 Constitution. In an earlier case Magkalas v. NHA, the Court has already ruled
on the validity of evictions/demolitions without any court order. In that case, the court affirmed the
validity of Sec. 2 of PD 1472 and held that Caridad Magkalas’ illegal possession of the property should
not hinder NHA’s development of Bagong Barrio Urban Bliss Project.
Furthermore, the Court stated that demolitions/evictions may be validly carried out even without judicial
order in the following instances:
(1) when the property involved is an expropriated property xxx pursuant to Section 1 of P.D. No. 1315;
(2) when there are squatters on government resettlement projects and illegal occupants in any homelot,
apartment or dwelling unit owned or administered by the NHA pursuant to Section 2 of P.D. No.
1472;
(3) when persons or entities occupy danger areas such as esteros, railroad tracks, garbage dumps,
riverbanks, shorelines, waterways and other public places such as sidewalks, roads, parks and
playgrounds, pursuant to Section 28(a) of R.A. No. 7279;
(4) when government infrastructure projects with available funding are about to be implemented
pursuant to Section 28(b) of R.A. No. 7279.