Eminent Domain (Political Law Cases): Republic, as represenred by NIA vs CA and Francisco Diaz G.R. No. 147245. March 31, 2005

EMINENT DOMAIN

REPUBLIC, as represented by the NIA vs. CA and FRANCISCO DIAZ
G.R. No. 147245. March 31, 2005

Facts: 

Manuel Diaz owned approximately 172 hectares of property devoted to the planting of palay. The property was located in La Fuente, Sta. Rosa, Nueva Ecija, and allegedly yielded between 132 to 200 cavans of palay per hectare every year. After Manuel Diaz’s death, his son, Franciso Diaz, was appointed administrator of the property.

In 1972, the National Irrigation Administration bulldozed ten (10) hectares of the Property to build two irrigation canals. Although the canals when finished occupied only a portion of the 10 hectares, the entire area became prone to flooding two months out of every year because of the side-burrow method NIA used in the construction of the canals. NIA completed the canals without instituting expropriation proceedings or indemnifying the property’s owners. Respondent then sought compensation from NIA for the land affected by the canals, as well as for losses due to unrealized profits. In 1980, NIA belatedly offered to buy the portions of the Property occupied by the canals pursuant to NIA’s expansion program. The 1980 deeds of sale were never implemented. Respondent did not receive any consideration pursuant to these deeds. On 20 August 1993, respondent, as administrator of the Property, filed an action for damages and just compensation against NIA. NIA countered that respondent’s right to bring the action had prescribed in accordance with RA 3601, as amended by PD 552. NIA also argued that respondent’s failure to pursue the implementation of the 1980 deeds of sale amounted to laches.

Issue: 

Whether or not prescription or laches bars the respondent’s right to just compensation.

Held: 

The principle of laches finds no application in the present case. There is nothing inequitable in giving due course to respondent’s claim for compensation. Both equity and the law direct that a property owner should be compensated if his property is taken for public use.

Eminent domain is the inherent power of a sovereign state to appropriate private property to particular uses to promote public welfare. No one questions NIA’s authority to exercise the delegated power of eminent domain. However, the power of eminent domain is not limitless. NIA cannot exercise the power with wanton disregard for property rights. One basic limitation on the State’s power of eminent domain is the constitutional directive that, “private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation.”

The thirteen-year interval between the execution of the 1980 deeds of sale and the 1993 filing of the complaint does not bar the claim for compensation. This Court reiterated the long-standing rule “that where private property is taken by the Government for public use without first acquiring title thereto either through expropriation or negotiated sale, the owner’s action to recover the land or the value thereof does not prescribe.”