This case has been cited 1 times or more.
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2007-03-28 |
CHICO-NAZARIO, J. |
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| Despite petitioners' assertion that Silot Bay is a navigable body of water and by its very nature and inherent character is of public dominion, thus, there is no need for a declaration by any appropriate government agency that it is a communal fishing ground before Silot Bay may be recognized as such, it cannot be gainsaid that the prerogative of classifying public lands pertains to administrative agencies which have been specially tasked by statutes to do so and that the courts will not interfere on matters which are addressed to the sound discretion of government and/or quasi-judicial agencies entrusted with the regulation of activities coming under their special technical knowledge and training.[25] It should be stressed that the function of administering and disposing of lands of the public domain in the manner prescribed by law is not entrusted to the courts but to executive officials.[26] And as such, courts should refrain from looking into the underlying reasons or grounds which impelled the classification and declaration of Silot Bay as timberland and its subsequent release as alienable and disposable land. From the facts of the case, it is evident that the Bureau of Forestry released Silot Bay as alienable and disposable by virtue of the Memorandum issued by then President Marcos on 16 January 1967 which clearly empowered said bureau to identify and locate the 700,000 hectares of fishpond areas and to release said areas as alienable and disposable. Hence, the courts, in view of the clear legal directive by which said area was released as alienable and disposable, will refrain from questioning the wisdom of such classification or declaration. | |||||