WEST TOWER CONDOMINIUM CORP. vs.

FIRST PHILIPPINE INDUSTRIAL

CORP.

Posted on June 16, 2015 Remedial Law

G.R. No. 194239, June 16, 2015

VELASCO, JR. J. EN BANC

FACTS: A petition for issuance of writ of kalikasan was filed by West Tower
Condominium after First Philippine Industrial Corporation’s (FPIC) pipeline used to
transport diesel, gasoline, jet fuel and kerosene, burst and seeped into the condominium’s
basement. West Tower Condominium argued that FPIC’s omission or failure to timely
replace its pipelines and to observe extraordinary diligence caused the petroleum spill in
the City of Makati; and the continued use of the now 4 to 7-year old pipeline would not
only be a hazard or a threat to the lives, health, and property of those who live or sojourn
in all the municipalities in which the pipeline is laid, but would also affect the rights of
the generations yet unborn to live in a balanced and healthful ecology. Prayed for in the
petition, among others, were the following: (a) that a special trust fund be opened by
FPIC to answer for future similar contingencies; and (b) that the directors and officers of
FPIC be held liable under the Environmental Protection Order.

ISSUES:

(a) Whether or not a special trust fund should be opened by FPIC to answer for future
similar contingencies.

(b) Whether or not directors and officers of FPIC shall be held liable under the
Environmental Protection Order.

HELD:

(a) The creation of a special trust fund is misplaced. Under the Rules of Procedure for
Environmental Cases, a trust fund is limited solely for the purpose of rehabilitating or
restoring the environment. Since the prayer is for the creation of a trust fund for similar
future contingencies, this is clearly outside the limited purpose of a special trust fund
under the Rules of Procedure for Environmental Cases, which is to rehabilitate or restore
the environment that has presumably already suffered.

(b) Court should refrain from ruling on the liability of the directors and officers of the
FPIC. Under the Rules of Procedure for Environmental Cases, in a petition for a writ of
kalikasan, the Court cannot grant the award of damages to individual petitioners. The
liability of the officers and directors can be properly resolved only in civil and criminal
cases, and not in this present petition.