Cooperative Development Authority vs Dolefil
Agrarian Beneficiaries Coop Inc., 385 SCRA 552
Criminal Case Digest:
Digested Cases
FACTS:
Sometime in the later part of 1997, the CDA received from certain members of the Dolefil
Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative, Inc. (DARBCI for brevity), an
agrarian reform cooperative that owns 8,860 hectares of land in Polomolok,
South Cotabato, several complaints alleging mismanagement and/or
misappropriation of funds of DARBCI by the then incumbent officers and members
of the board of directors of the cooperative, some of whom are herein private
respondents.
The complaints led the CDA
to act according to its function and issued a freeze order on the DARBCI funds
and creating management committee to manage the affairs of the said
cooperative.
ISSUE:
At the core of the instant petition for review on
certiorari of the Decision1 of the Court of Appeals, 13th
Division, in CA-G.R. SP. No. 47933 promulgated on September 9, 1998 and its
Resolution2 dated February 9, 1999 is the issue of whether or not
petitioner Cooperative Development Authority (CDA
for brevity) is vested with quasi-judicial authority to adjudicate
intra-cooperative disputes.
HELD:
WHEREFORE, judgment is hereby
rendered as follows:
1. The petition for review on
certiorari is hereby DENIED for lack of merit. The orders, resolutions,
memoranda and any other acts rendered by petitioner Cooperative Development
Authority in CDA -CO Case No.
97-011 are hereby declared null and void ab initio for lack of
quasi-judicial authority of petitioner to adjudicate intra-cooperative
disputes; and the petitioner is hereby ordered to cease and desist from taking
any further proceedings therein; and
2. In the interest of justice,
the dispositive portion of the Resolution of the Court of Appeals, dated
February 9, 1999, in CA-G.R. SP No. 47933, insofar as it nullified the
elections of the members of the Board of Directors and Officers of DARBCI held
during the general assembly of the DARBCI members on July 12, 1998, is hereby SET
ASIDE.
No pronouncement as to costs.