G.R. No.

145972             March 23, 2004

IGNACIA BALICAS, petitioner,
vs.
FACT-FINDING & INTELLIGENCE BUREAU (FFIB), OFFICE OF THE
OMBUDSMAN, respondents.
QUISIBING, J.
FACTS:
Philjas Corp. proposed the building of Cherry Hills Subdivision (CHS) and was endorsed
to the HLURB. All proper certification and permits were acquired. However, in 1999,
ISSUE:
Whether Exec Judge Manzano’s membership is unconstitutional.
HELD:
Yes. It is unconstitutional because Provincial/City Committees of Justice perform
administrative functions.
Provincial/City Committees on Justice are created to ensure the speedy disposition of
cases of detainees to alleviate jail congestion and improve local jail conditions, which
are evidently administrative functions.
Administrative functions are those which involve the regulation and control over the
conduct and affairs of individuals for; their own welfare and the promulgation of rules
and regulations to better carry out the policy of the legislature or such as are devolved
upon the administrative agency by the organic law of its existence.
Under the Constitution, the members of the Supreme Court and other courts
established by law shall not be designated to any agency performing quasi- judicial or
administrative functions (Section 12, Art. VIII, Constitution).
Considering that membership of Exec Judge Manzano discharges administrative
functions and will violate the Constitution, the Court is constrained to deny his request.
Request is DENIED.