LLDA v.
CA 231 scra 292
FACTS:
The LLDA Legal and Technical personnel found that the City Government of Caloocan was maintaining an open dumpsite at
the Camarin area without first securing an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) from the Environmental
Management Bureau (EMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, as required under Presidential
Decree N o. 1586, and clearance from LLDA as required under Republic Act N o. 4850 and issued a CEASE and DESIST ORDER
(CDO) for the City Government of Caloocan to stop the use of the dumpsite.
ISSUES:
1. Does the LLDA and its amendatory laws, have the authority to entertain the complaint against the dumping of
garbage in the open dumpsite in Barangay Camarin authorized by the City Government of Caloocan?
2. Does the LLDA have the power and authority to issue a "cease and desist" order?
APPLICABLE LAWS:
• Executive Order N o. 927 series of 1983 which provides, thus: Sec. 4. Additional Powers and Functions. The authority shall
have the following powers and functions: (d) Make, alter or modify orders requiring the discontinuance of pollution
specifying the conditions and the time within which such discontinuance must be accomplished
• As a general rule, the adjudication of pollution cases generally pertains to the Pollution Adjudication Board (PAB), except
in cases w here the special law provides for another forum
RULING:
1. YES, LLDA has authority. It must be recognized in this regard that the LLDA, as a specialized administrative agency, is
specifically mandated under Republic Act No. 4850 and its amendatory law s to carry out and make effective the
declared national policy of promoting and accelerating the development and balanced growth of the Laguna Lake area
and the surrounding provinces of Rizal and Laguna and the cities of San Pablo, Manila, Pasay, Quezon and Caloocan with
due regard and adequate provisions for environmental management and control, preservation of the quality of human
life and ecological systems, and the prevention of undue ecological disturbances, deterioration and pollution. Under such a
broad grant and power and authority, the LLDA, by virtue of its special charter, obviously has the responsibility to protect the
inhabitants of the Laguna Lake region from the deleterious effects of pollutants emanating from the discharge of
wastes from the surrounding areas.
2. YES, pursuant to EO 927 Section 4. While it is a fundamental rule that an administrative agency has only such powers as
are expressly granted to it by law , it is likewise a settled rule that an administrative agency has also such powers as are
necessarily implied in the exercise of its express powers. In the exercise, therefore, of its express powers under its
charter as a regulatory and quasi-judicial body with respect to pollution cases in the Laguna Lake region, the
authority of the LLDA to issue a "cease and desist order" is, perforce, implied.
NOTE: HOWEVER, writs of mandamus and injunction are beyond the power of the LLDA to issue.
