MUNICIPALITY OF BINAN LAGUNA vs HOLIDAY HILLS STOCK & BREEDING FARM CORPORATION AND DOMINO FARMS INC, GR 200403, October 10, 2022

 

MUNICIPALITY OF BINAN LAGUNA vs HOLIDAY HILLS STOCK & BREEDING FARM CORPORATION AND DOMINO FARMS INC

GR 200403

October 10, 2022

 

Facts:

The Municipality of Binan Laguna issued Municipal Resolution No. 284 which approved Mun. Ord. No. 06, an ordinance regulating the use of urban control zones for agricultural use, gradually phasing out large piggery, fowl, and other livestock farms located within the Municipality of Binan, providing penalties, and for other purposes.

Holiday Hills and Domino Farms filed a Petition for Certiorari, Declaratory Relief, and Prohibition with application for Preliminary Injunction and/or prayer for Temporary Restraining Order8 before the RTC, assailing the validity of Municipal Ordinance No. 06, specifically sections 2,3,and 6 for being vague, whimsical, arbitrary, and capricious and unconstitutional.

The RTC dismissed the petition stating that it was issued in the exercise of police power and since the facilities were located near residential subdivisions, it therefore constitute a nuisance per se.

Holiday Hills and Domino appealed before the CA which reversed the RTC decision. It found that the ordinance violated Holiday Hills' and Domino Farms' right to substantial due process 19 because their hog farms are not a nuisance per se but a nuisance per accidens, which cannot be abated via an ordinance.

 

Issue:

Whether or not the CA correctly reversed the RTC Decision and declared the invalidity of Municipal Ordinance No. 06.

 

Ruling:

No. The petitioners have satisfied both tests of a valid ordinance and police power. All the requisites for a valid ordinance were established and they rightfully invoked police power to successfully justify the enactment of the municipal ordinance. 

 

The municipality defends the Ordinance by stating that it seeks to abate a nuisance per se since The residents of Binan have exemplified their disgust over these "stench-emitting" hog farms through a collective complaint signed by them.

 

To constitute a nuisance per se, the obstruction must hinder the public use of streets, highways, or sidewalks, or the interference with the safety or property of a person must be immediate. In other words, the perceived danger that the act, omission, establishment, business, or condition of property poses must be of the type that presents an emergency. 

 

Here, respondents' hog farms must be considered a nuisance per se. The fact that they emit an unfavorable stench immediately interferes with the safety of the residents of Binan. As a public nuisance, the large hog farms owned by respondents may be abated through a local ordinance.

 

Nuisance may be classified in two ways, according to: ( 1) the object it affects; or (2) its susceptibility to summary abatement.

 

Being a nuisance per se, petitioners can summarily abate respondents' hog farms. Petitioners have substantiated how the alleged annoying and offensive character of respondents' hog farms is deleterious to the public health and safety of the residents of Binan. 

 

The means adopted, or summary abatement of a nuisance per se, is reasonably necessary to accomplish Municipal Ordinance No. 06' s alleged purpose. It sought to "fully protect the residents of Binan, Laguna from all forms of health hazards.”

 

Municipal Ordinance No. 06 merely seeks to reduce the level of livestock to a manageable level, and only those farms with large livestock will be affected. Municipal Ordinance No. 06 does not totally prohibit the conduct of business and even specifies the number of livestock and poultry that must not be exceeded by the business owners. To be sure, it is a form of regulating businesses, which is within the power of local governments under the general welfare clause of the Local Government Code.

 

By passing Municipal Ordinance No. 06, the Municipality of Bifian simply exercised its power to promote the general welfare of the residents of Bifian by preserving their comfort and convenience.