Laws on Local Government

MIDTERM NOTES
1. General Principles
Corporation – an artificial being created by operation of law, having the right of succession and
the powers, attributes and properties expressly authorized by law or incident to its existence.
Classification of corporation according to purpose:
a. Public – organized for the government of a portion of the State
i. Quasi-corporation – created for a narrow or limited purpose.
ii. Municipal corporation – a body politic and corporate constituted by the
incorporation of the inhabitants for the purpose of local government.
1. Elements:
a. Legal Creation or incorporation
b. Corporate name
c. Inhabitants
d. Territory
b. Private – formed for some private purpose, benefit, aim or end
c. Quasi-public – A private corporation that renders public service or supplies public
wants.
Test to see whether corporation is public: If it is created by the State as its own agency to help
the State in carrying out its governmental functions, then it is public; otherwise, it is private.
Local Government Unit Definition
An LGU is a public office, a public corporation, and is classified as a municipal corporation
proper. They are administrative agencies and agencies of Government distinguished from the
National Government, which refers to the entire machinery of the central government They are
established for the government of a portion of the state. It can only exercise its powers within
its territorial boundary or jurisdiction. Its powers are intramural.
As exceptions, an LGU can exercise extramural powers in three occasions, namely:
(1) Protection of water supply
(2) Prevention of nuisance
(3) Police purposes
Public corporations created by local governments are referred to as quasi-municipal
corporations
Where a law is capable of two interpretations, one in favor of centralized power and the other
beneficial to local autonomy, the scales must be weighed in favor of autonomy.

Types of Local Government Units

Under Section 1, Article X of 1987 Constitution local government units or municipal
corporations proper are referred to as “territorial and political subdivisions”
Local governments are created by the state, either by law or by authority of law, for a specific
governmental purpose.
Types of LGUs:
(1) Local Autonomous Regions
(2) Provinces
(3) Cities
a. 3 sub-types:
i. Highly-urbanized Cities
ii. Independent Cities
iii. Component Cities

*(i) and (ii) are under direct supervision of the President

*(i) is not subject to provincial oversight because the complex and varied problem in HUC due to
a bigger population and greater economic activity require greater autonomy
*(iii) under the supervision of provinces
(4) Municipalities
(5) Barangays
*numbers 2 to 5 are territorial and political subdivisions

2. Sources of Local Government Laws

Constitution, Local Government Code, Statutes, Ordinances.
3. Decentralization
Through this system, a local government unit shall be given more powers, authority,
responsibilities, and resources. The process of decentralization shall proceed from the national
government to the local government units.
There are two levels of decentralization:
i. Decentralization of administration – when the central government delegates
administrative powers to political subdivisions in order to broaden the base of
government power and in the process to make local governments more responsive
and accountable, and ensure their fullest development as self-reliant communities
and make them more effective partners in the pursuit of national development and
social progress.

ii. Decentralization of power

4. Local Autonomy
Local autonomy, as stated in the 1987 Constitution, refers to a more responsive and
accountable local government through decentralization. While local government units (LGUs)
have broad governance powers, they cannot act against the Constitution, the 1991 Local
Government Code (LGC), or their charters. The goal of local autonomy is to encourage self-
reliant communities and provide LGUs the authority to streamline and reorganize based on
their needs.
 Local autonomy, as a constitutional right, enables LGUs to achieve their full potential as
self-reliant communities, making them effective partners in national development. However,
the system remains unitary, not federal, meaning that LGUs do not have sovereignty and act
within the framework of delegation from the central government.

Section 16 of the LGC grants LGUs the power to govern efficiently and promote general
welfare, including maintaining public order, health, culture, and employment.

Section 76 of the LGC allows LGUs to design their own organizational structures, subject
to the Civil Service Commission's guidelines.

Decentralization occurs through devolution, where the national government transfers

specific powers and responsibilities to LGUs, while non-devolved powers remain with the
national government.
5. Dual Nature
SECTION 15. Political and Corporate Nature of Local Government Units. Every local
government unit created under LGC is a body politic and corporate endowed with powers, to
be exercised by it in conformity with law. As such, it shall exercise powers as a political
subdivision of the National Government and as a corporate entity representing the inhabitants
of its territory.
Accordingly, it has dual functions, namely:
i. Public or governmental – as an agent of the state for the government of the territory and
the inhabitants.

Governmental powers are those exercised in administering the powers of the state and
promoting the public welfare and they include the legislative, judicial, public and
political. Example: delivery of sand for a municipal road (Municipality of San Fernando, La
Union vs Firme).

ii. Private or proprietary – as an agent of the community in the administration of local

affairs. It acts as a separate entity, for its own purposes, and not as a subdivision of the
State.

Proprietary powers are exercised for the special benefit and advantage of the community
and include those which are ministerial, private and corporate. Examples are public
cemeteries, markets, ferries and waterworks.
6. Manner of Creation and its requisites
Creation is a legislative act. Only congress and, by authority of law, local legislative councils, can
create specific LGs. The enabling law is referred to as the charter of the LGU
SECTION 6. Authority to Create Local Government Units. - A local government unit may be
created, divided, merged, abolished, or its boundaries substantially altered either by law
enacted by Congress in the case of a province, city, municipality, or any other political
subdivision, or by ordinance passed by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan or Sangguniang
Panlungsod concerned in the case of a Barangay located within its territorial jurisdiction,
subject to such limitations and requirements prescribed in this Code.
SECTION 10, ARTICLE X of the 1987 Constitution. An LGU is deemed incorporated on the day
the charter is approved by a majority of the votes cast in a plebiscite in the political units
directly affected.
The requisites for creation of local governments are:
i. Population
ii. Income
iii. Land area
7. Executive supervision
The president of the Philippines shall exercise general supervision over local governments. The
relationship between the Executive Branch and local governments is one of supervision, not
control.
Supervision – is the power of a superior officer to see to it that lower officers perform their
functions in accordance with law. It involves the power to review of executive orders and
ordinances, i.e., declare them ultra vires or illegal; the power to discipline; the power to
integrate development plans and zoning ordinances; the power to resolve boundary disputes;
the power to approve leaves, accept resignations and fill-up vacancies in the sanggunian; and
the power to augment basic services
Control – is the power of an officer to alter or modify or set aside what a subordinate officer
had done in the performance of his/her duties and to substitute the judgment of the former
for the latter.
Supervision Control
 Overseeing  Lays down rules in doing of an act
 Ensure that supervised unit follows  Impose limitations when there is none
law/ rules imposed by law
 Allows interference if supervised unit  Decide for subordinate or change
acted contrary to law decision
 Over actor and act  Substitute judgment over that made by
 There must be a law subordinate
 Only involves questions of law (declare  Alter wisdom, law-conforming
legal or illegal); not wisdom or policy judgment or exercise of discretion
 Discretion to order act undone or re-
done
 Prescribe manner by which act is done

8. Legislative control
Congress retains control of the LGUs. The power to create still includes the power to destroy.
The power to grant still includes the power to withhold or recall. The National Legislature is still
the principal of the LGUs, which cannot defy its will, or modify or violate its laws.
Powers of the Congress:
 i. Allocate among the different government units their powers,
responsibilities and resources
9. Powers of Local Governments
LGs have constitutional, statutory and jurisprudential powers.
a. Delegation and Interpretation of Powers
b. Police Power – is the plenary power vested in the legislature to make statutes and
ordinances to promote the health, morals, peace, education, good order or safety and
general welfare of the people.
i. It is a statutory delegated power under Section 16 of the 1991 LGC. The
general welfare clause is the delegation in statutory form of the police
power of the State to LGs.
SECTION 16. General Welfare. - Every local government unit shall exercise the powers expressly
granted, those necessarily implied there from, as well as powers necessary, appropriate, or
incidental for its efficient and effective governance, and those which are essential to the
promotion of the general welfare. Within their respective territorial jurisdictions, local
government units shall ensure and support, among other things, the preservation and
enrichment of culture, promote health and safety, enhance the right of the people to a balanced
ecology, encourage and support the development of appropriate and self-reliant scientific and
technological capabilities, improve public morals, enhance economic prosperity and social
justice, promote full employment among their residents, maintain peace and order, and
preserve the comfort and convenience of their inhabitants.

ii. Two requisites for a valid exercise of police power:

1. Lawful subject – the interests of the public generally, as distinguished
from those of a particular class, require the interference of the State;
2. Lawful method – the means employed are reasonably necessary for
the attainment of the object sought to e accomplished and are not
unduly oppressive upon individuals.
*In the exercise of police power and the general welfare clause, property rights of individuals
may be subjected to restraints and burdens in order to fulfill the objectives of the government.
Valid Demolitions and evictions, circumstances:
1. expropriated property
2. squatters and illegal occupants on government resettlement projects
3. when persons or entities occupy danger areas
4. when government infrastructure projects with available funding are
about to be implemented
General welfare clause, two branches:
1. General legislative power – authorizes the local legislative council to enact ordinances
and make regulations not repugnant to law, as may be necessary to carry into effect and
discharge the powers and duties conferred upon the local legislative council by law.
2. Police power proper – authorizes the local government to enact ordinances as may be
necessary and proper for the health and safety, prosperity, morals, peace, good order,
 comfort, and convenience of the municipality and its inhabitants, and for the protection
of their property
c. Eminent Domain
- A statutory power of LGs to take private property for “public use” so long as
the government pays “just compensation”
Judicial review of the exercise of eminent domain is limited to the following areas of concern:
1. The adequacy of the compensation
2. The necessity of the taking
3. The public use character of the purpose of the taking
Requisites for authorizing immediate entry in the exercise of an LGU’s right of eminent domain:
1. Filing of a complaint for expropriation sufficient in form and substance
2. Deposit of the amount of at least 15% of the fair market value of the property
to be expropriated based on its current tax declaration
d. Taxation
- A constitutionally vested power to the LGUs, subject to guidelines and
limitations set by the Congress that is consistent with the basic policy of local
autonomy.
e. Inter-governmental Relations

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Other Notes from Nachura:

MUNICIPAL LIABILITY
Respondeat superior: the legal doctrine according to which an employer is responsible for
actions of its employees during the course of their employment.

The Supreme Court once said, “Where they act maliciously and wantonly and injure individuals
rather than discharge a public duty, they are personally liable.”

Local officials may also be held personally liable if they acted beyond the scope of their
authority and with evident bad faith.