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40 SUPREME COURT REPORTS ANNOTATED

San Rafael Homeowners Association, Inc. vs. City of
Manila

Nos. L-26833 & L-26834. July 28, 1972.

SAN RAFAEL HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION,INC.and

JACINTO C. LEAÑO, petitioners-appellants, vs. THE
CITY OF MANILA,HON.ANTONIO J.
VILLEGAS,MANUEL CUDIAMAT, JOSE
ERESTAIN,FERNANDO MANALASTAS and JOSE F.
SUGAY, respondents-appellees. BALUT WOMEN’S CLUB,
INC., DR.SEVERINO LOPEZ and DR.TOMAS
JOSEF,petioners-appellants, vs. THE CITY OF
MANILA,HON.ANTONIO J. VILLEGAS, MANUEL
CUDIAMAT, JOSE ERESTAIN, F ERNANDO
MANALASTAS and JOSE F. SUGAY, respondents-
appellees.

Municipal Corporations; City of Manila; Local Autonomy Act;

Certification as to availability of funds and submission of samples
to the Institute of Science not required in public bidding for
construction of garbage disposal plant.—It should be noted that
the requirement as to the City Treasurer’s certification refers to
contracts entered into or about to be entered into by the local
government while the submission of samples to the Institute of
Science or to the testing laboratories refers to equipment and
materials purchased. In this case, no such contract is yet involved
and no purchase of equipment contemplated. The act complained
of is merely the scheduled bidding, from which an award may or
may not result.
Same; Same; Ordinances; Case at bar, choice of one system of
garbage and refuse disposal not a violation of ordinance providing
for either of two systems.—Ordinance No. 5274 is worded
comprehensively enough to cover various systems of garbage and
refuse disposal, whether by composting or by incineration. The
fact that the bidding was limited to the second method, because in
the opinion of the city authorities it was the more efficient and
suitable one, does not violate the said ordinance and is certainly
of no concern to the petitioners herein who are not themselves

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bidders, except insofar as the operation of an incinerator may give

rise to a nuisance which should be prevented.
Same; Same; Local Autonomy Act; City engineer to submit
specifications for bidding.—The City Charter of Manila provides
in its section 31 that the City Engineer, not the Bureau of Public
Works, is the one who shall prepare and submit specifications for
city public works projects. Indeed, under the Local Autonomy Act
(Sec. 3), cities are authorized to undertake public works projects
financed by city funds without the intervention of the Department
of Public Works and Communications.

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VOL. 46 JULY 28, 1972 41

San Rafael Homeowners Association, Inc. vs. City of Manila

Civil Law; Nuisance; Remedial law; Actions; Action to avoid

possible nuisance when prenuture.—It is entirely pointless to go
into an academic discussion of the relative merits of the
composting and the incineration methods of garbage and refuse
disposal for purposes of deciding whether or not at this stage
prohibition should issue to stop the bidding called for by the
respondents. The instant petitions for that purpose are
premature. The Supreme Court will not substitute its judgment
for the City officials’ even before the bidding is begun and on a
purely theoretical basis, rule that the bids submitted should not
be opened, or if opened should not be accepted, because not one of
the plants therein offered to be established would serve the
purpose envisaged and because, if so established, it would so
pollute the environment as to constitute a nuisance. If and when
such a result becomes a reality, or at least an imminent threat,
that will be the time the petitioners may come to court.
Municipal corporations; City of Manila,; Administrative law;
When postponement of public bidding still valid though not
pubUshed in the Official Gazette.—The invitation to bid dated 4
June 1966 fixed the deadline for the submission of sealed bids on
25 July 1966. The notice was published in the Official Gazette
which, it is now averred, came out on that very day, 25 July.
However, it appears that at the instance of one of the bidders the
bidding deadline was moved to 19 August 1966, and notice thereof
was again published in the Official Gazette dated 1 August 1966.
In this notice it was announced that “should there be another
postponement, no further publication in the Official Gazette will
be made (and that) interested parties are requested to watch local
dailies “for any announcement of postponement.” The resetting of
the bidding to another date, 15 November 1966, with notice

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published in a local daily only was substantial compliance with

the requisites of publication.
Same; Same; Ordinances; Actions; When suit questioning the
ability of prospective bidders to meet requirements of an ordinance
not proper.--The argument that since all the six bids originally
submitted, one of which precisely offered an incinerator with
thermal power generator, were rejected on the ground that none
of them qould be self-liquidating as required by Ordinance No.
5274, the only conclusion that can be derived is that none of the
bids which were submitted subsequently will satisfy the
requirement, is untenable. In the first place the argument would
be more proper for prospective bidders who might have been
denied the chance to bid, but not for the herein petitioners, who
have no interest in the bidding per se or in whether or not the
plant to be established will pay for itself. In the second place it ig
again premature to speculate on this particular aspect of the bids.

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42 SUPREME COURT REPORTS ANNOTATED

San Rafael Homeowners Association, Inc. vs. City of
Manila

APPEAL from the decision of the Court of First Instance of

Manila. Bocar, J.
The facts are stated in the opinion of the Court.
          Francisco Carreon & Renato E. Tañada for
petitioner-appellant San Rafael Homeowners Association,
Inc.
     Antonio F. Navarrete for petitioners-appellants Balut
Women’s Club, Inc., etc., et al.
          S. M. Artiaga, Jr., B. Dayaw & A. T. Boquiren for
respondents-appellees.
     Alejandro De Santos as amicus curiae.

MAKALINTAL, J.:

Civil Case No. 65992 and Civil Case No. 66179—the first
for prohibition with preliminary injunction and the second
for prohibition and mandamus with preliminary injunction
—were filed in the Court of First Instance of Manila by the
San Rafael Homeowners Association, Inc. and Jacinto C.
Leaño, and by the Balut Women’s Club, Dr. Severino Lopez
and Dr. Tomas Josef, respectively. The respondents were
the City of Manila and the members of the city’s
Committee on Awards, namely, then City Mayor Antonio J.
Villegas, City Treasurer Manuel Cudiamat, City Auditor
Jose Erestain and two other city officials—Fernando Ma-
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nalastas and Jose F. Sugay. The petitioners sought to

restrain the respondents from conducting a public bidding
for the construction and establishment of an incinerator-
thermal plant as a system of garbage and refuse disposal in
the City of Manila.
The two cases were heard jointly, and from the decision
of the court a quo dismissing them the petitioners brought
the instant appeal.
The records show that since 1955 the City of Manila had
been conducting studies on the problem of garbage and
refuse disposal. In 1961 a pilot composting plant was in
operation at the North Harbor. On 15 November 1965 City.

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San Rafael Homeowners Association, Inc. vs. City of
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Ordinance No. 5274 was enacted, “authorizing the

establishment, equipping and construction of a garbage
and refuse disposal plant. . .” and appropriating the sum of
P15,000,000.00 for that purpose. The ordinance provided,
inter alia, that “the city shall operate and manage the
plant on a self-liquidating basis,” and upon the signing of
the contract for its construction shall provide a site of five
hectares in the area which had been reclaimed from the sea
near Balut Island at the North Bay Boulevard; and that
the contractor (bidder), prior lo receiving the necessary
specifications, shall indicate “the country of origin and
experience (sic) of the equipment to be used in his proposal
... (and) shall list the type, size, make and condition of the
machines and other equipment that will be used in setting
up the garbage and refuse disposal plant.’7
On 2 February 1966, pursuant to Ordinance No. 5274
the City of Manila advertised for and received bids for the
construction of the plant in accordance with specifications
previously prepared by the respondents. Six bids were
received: four firms offered to construct a compost plant,
one firm offered to put up an incinerator with a thermal
power station to generate electricity, and another offered a
combined compost and incinerating plant. The acting City
Public Service Officer, Fernando Manalastas,
recommended approval of the bid for an incinerator with
thermal power station. In an independent evaluation made
by the National Science Development Board at the request
of the Mayor, it found all six bids deficient and submitted
the following recommendation:
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1. Of the six (6) bidders, ACFC and VVDC should be

rejected because their offers are above the P15
million amount authorized by the City. This would
leave three (3) bidders offering a composting plant
and one (1) bidder offering an incineration-thermal
power plant.
2. Considering only the technical and administration
aspects, of the remaining four (4) bids, there is
hardly any choice to be made among them.
However, with the health and sanitary aspects
considered, the choice points only to the
incineration-thermal power station.

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San Rafael Homeowners Association, Inc. vs. City of
Manila

3. Moreover, considering the marketability of the

product, compost is in no position to compete with
electricity especially insofar as the needs of the City
Government of Manila are concerned. Certainly,
the City would have a very limited use if at all of
the compost product, whereas it can use all the
electricity generated by the plant.
4. Taking into account what is best for the City of
Manila, in the long run, the most advantageous
offer would boil down to an incineration plant with
thermal power station.

The Committee on Awards held hearings from 12 April to 9

May 1966 in order to study and evaluate for itself the
various bids submitted. Apparently the committee was
inclined in favor of the incinerator-thermal plant system,
because on 13 May 1966 the Chief of the Fire Department
submitted a report to the Mayor in compliance with the
latter’s order to “make a study on how much it will cost the
City to put up its own electrical transmission and
distribution system utilizing an available power of 4,800
KW from the proposed incinerating plant at Isla de Balut
by feeding the different City Government buildings and
street lights within a radius of one (1) mile from the
proposed plant.”
On 19 May 1966, however, the Committee on Awards
decided to reject all the bids on the ground that none of
them complied with the requirement in the ordinance that
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the garbage and refuse disposal plant should be capable of

being operated on a self-liquidating basis. A motion for
reconsideration filed by the compost plant bidders was
denied on 6 June 1966.
New specifications were drawn up under date of 24 May
1966, Paragraph l.o.o. defined the term “Garbage and
Refuse Disposal Plant” to mean “pollution-free incinerator
plant complete with accessories and all other auxiliaries
that may render it a self-liquidating project,” and subject to
certain additional terms and conditions thereinafter
specified. Among those terms and conditions were: (1) that
bidders should submit detailed plans of the plant facilities,
accessories, auxiliaries and equipment; (2) that the bidders
should submit estimates of the gross and net proceeds to
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San Rafael Homeowners Association, Inc. vs. City of
Manila

be realized by the plant and its products; (3) that “the

incinerator plant shall provide maximum sanitary and
health safeguards and must be able to prevent the
exposure of disease and other health hazards of the people
within the plant area and its vicinity ... in short, among
other things, (that) the incinerator plant must be
‘pollution-free1 and never be a nuisance.” More detailed
specifications were provided with respect to: (a) the
garbage and refuse receiving and feeding equipment; (b)
the incinerator furnace; (c) the incinerating equipment
itself; (d) the accessories and auxiliaries of the incinerating
equipment for each furnace; (e) the ash handling plant; and
(f) the air pollution control equipment. With respect to this
last item, the specifications did not call for any specific
type, brand or capacity of equipment, but simply provided
that it should be “a complete air pollution control
equipment to clean the flue gases of dust and pollutant
gases . . .(with) sufficient capacity and high efficiency to
control air pollution in accordance with the standards of
the Model Smoke Law of the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers.”
The specifications were approved by the Awards
Committee on 2 June 1966, and an “Invitation to Bid” was
published in the Official Gazette, Volume 62, No. 30, dated
25 July 1966. It appears, however, that the deadline for the
submission and opening of bids called for in the publication
was also 25 July 1966.
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On 5 July 1966 Civil Case No. 65992 (L-26833 in this

appeal) was filed. A restraining order to stop the scheduled
bidding was issued ex parte by the Court of First Instance
on the same day, but was subsequently lifted after a
hearing on 12 July 1966, when the prayer for a writ of
preliminary injunction was denied. The bidding was then
postponed to 19 August 1966 and notice thereof, dated 25
July 1966, was published anew in the Official Gazette,
Volume 62, No. 31, 1 August 1966.
On 22 July 1966 the second case, Civil Case No. 66179
(L-26834 in this appeal), was commenced, and again a
restraining order was issued ex parte by the trial court, and
was not lifted until its decision was rendered.
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46 SUPREME COURT REPORTS ANNOTATED

San Rafael Homeowners Association, Inc vs. City of Manila

Since both cases involved identical facts and issues they

were consolidated on 30 July 1966, on motion of the
respondents. No formal trial was held and in lieu of oral
evidence the parties submitted documents, citations of
authorities and expert opinions, and depositions to support
their respective sides, in addition to the usual memoranda.
A joint decision was promulgated by the lower court on 5
November 1966, denying the writs prayed for and
dismissing both petitions.
Subsequently the respondents caused the publication in
the Manila Chronicle issue of 10 November 1966 of a
“Notice for Resetting of the Date for Rebirfding” to 15
November 1966. The petitioners moved in the lower court
for the issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction, but the
motion was denied because their appeal to this Court had
by then been perfected.
A motion for preliminary injunction pending appeal was
then filed in this Court. Forthwith, on 15 November 1966, a
temporary restraining order was issued to enjoin the
bidding scheduled on that same date.
In their brief the petitioners cite numerous errors in the
decision of the lower court. The main points, however, are
that the advertised bidding for an incinerator was in excess
of the respondents’ authority because an incinerator is a
nuisance per se and because its establishment would
violate Ordinance No. 5274, the City Charter of Manila, the
Revised Administrative Code, and the Local Autonomy Act.
1. Reference is made to Section 607 of the Revised
Administrative Code, which says that the City Treasurer
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must certify that funds have been duly appropriated for the
proposed contract; and to the provision in the Local
Autonomy Act that samples should first be forwarded to
the Institute of Science and Technology and/or Materials
Testing Laboratories of the Bureau of Public Highways for
analysis, and that purchases of equipment should be made
on the basis of specifications made by the Bureau of Public
Works. It should be noted that the requirement as to
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San Rafael Homeowners Association, Inc. vs. City of
Manila

the City Treasurer’s certification refers to contracts entered

into or about to be entered into by the local government,
while the submission of samples to the Institute of Science
or to the testing laboratories refers to equipment and
materials purchased. In this case, no such contract is yet
involved and no purchase of equipment Contemplated. The
act complained of is merely the scheduled bidding, from
which an award may or may not result. Moreover,
Ordinance No. 5274 does appropriate the amount of
P15,000,000 “out of any unappropriated funds, balances of
dormani projects and other savings existing in the City
Treasure not otherwise appropriated.” Not only that, but
the same ordinance also authorize the City Mayor, in ease
funds are not available in the City Treasury, to borrow
from banks or other lending institutions. And with respect
to the other point, the City Charter of Manila provides in
its section 31 that the City Engineer, not the Bureau of
Public Works, is the one who shall prepare and submit
specifications for city public works projects. Indeed, under
Ihe local Autonomy Act (Sec 3 ) , cities are authorized to
undertake pub-l i c works projects financed by city funds
without the intervention of the Department of Public
Works and Communications.
2. Ordinance No. 5274 is worded comprehensively
enough to cover various systems of garbage and refuse
disposal, whether by composting or by incineration. The
fact that the bidding was limited to the second method,
because in the opinion of the city authorities it was the
more efficient and suitable one, does not violate the said
ordinance and is certainly of no concern to the petitioners
herein who are not themselves bidders, except insofar as
the operation of an incinerator may give rise to a nuisance
which should be prevented.
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This, indeed, is the only issue which the interest of the

petitioners entitle them to raise and which they do so with
copious citations of authorities. The main thrust of their
argument is that composting is better than incineration as
a method of garbage and refuse disposal and that
incineration will prove to be a nuisance. Arrayed on the
side of

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48 SUPREME COURT REPORTS ANNOTATED

San Rafael Homeowners Association, Inc. vs. City of
Manila

the respondents, however, are equally impressive

authorities to the contrary. What we gather from a reading
of the conflicting citations, from court decisions in the
United States, from journals and other publications on the
subject, and from reports and opinions of experts, is that
the trend in many progressive countries is toward the
incineration method. Its efficiency, it appears to us,
depends to a decisive degree upon the adequacy of the
equipment and measures employed. The very authorities
relied upon by the petitioners bear this out, such as, for
instance, the following:

“x x x if there will be no adequate measures that will be

incorporated in the incinerator, there will be pollution and the
pollutant will be great considering that the volume of garbage and
refuse collected everyday amounts to several hundreds of tens per
day x x x.” (Opinion of Dr. Jesus Almonte, Chief of the Division of
Industrial Hygiene of the Bureau of Health Services and
Assistant Professor in Preventive Medicine at the University of
Sto. Tomas, page 8 of Petitioners’ Brief)
“The lack of a secondary combustion chamber and additional
air into it (the proposed incinerator) means very incomplete
combustion with dangerous noxious gases such as carbon
monoxide, sulfur dioxide, hydro carbons, etc. belching into the
atmosphere to the detriment of property and health of citizens.”
(Opinion of Dr. John Snell, page 13 of Petitioners’ Brief)

It is, to our mind, entirely pointless to go into an academic

discussion of the relative merits of the composting and the
incineration methods of garbage and refuse disposal for
purposes of deciding whether or not at this stage
prohibition should issue to stop the bidding called for by
the respondents. The instant petitions for that purpose are
premature. Certainly this Court cannot and should not

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substitute its judgment this early for that of the

respondents, and on a purely theoretical basis rule that the
bids submitted should not be opened, or if opened should
not be accepted, because not one of the plants therein
offered to be established would serve the purpose envisaged
and because, if so established, it would so pollute the
environment as to constitute a nuisance. If and when such
a result becomes a reality, or at least an imminent threat,
that will be the time the petitioners may come to court.
That they
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VOL. 46, JULY 28, 1972 49

San Rafael Homeowners Association, Inc. vs. City of
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are not successful now will not preclude them from doing
so, because a continuing nuisance calls for a continuing
remedy. It is even a possibility that none of the bids
submitted to the respondents will be accepted for failure to
come up to the standards required by the specifications.
And should an award be made notwithstanding such
failure, demonstrable in court, then a suit for prohibition
would be proper.
3. Section 32 of the Charter of the City of Manila (R.A.
No. 409) provides that public works and improvements
involving a cost of P3,000.00 or more shall be awarded to
the lowest responsible bidder after public advertisement in
the Official Gazette for not less than ten days. The
invitation to bid dated 4 June 1966 fixed the deadline for
the submission of sealed bids on 25 July 1966. The notice
was published in the Official Gazette which, it is now
averred, came out on that very day, 25 July. However, it
appears that at the instance of one of the bidders the
bidding deadline was moved to 19 August 1966, and notice
thereof was again published in the Official Gazette dated 1
August 1966. In this notice it was announced that “should
there be another postponement, no further publication in
the Official Gazette will be made (and that) interested
parties are requested to watch local dailies for any
announcement of postponement.”
Further postponement of the bidding was caused by the
filing of these two suits in the lower court; and so after its
decision was promulgated on 5 November 1966 the date of
the bidding was reset, and pursuant to the advertence
made in the second publication in the Official Gazette the
corresponding notice was published in the Manila
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Chronicle of 10 November 1966, fixing a new deadline,

namely, 15 November 1966.
The circumstances related above disclose that there was
substantial compliance with the requisites of publication.
Indeed none of the participating bidders, nor any one
alleging to be a prospective bidder, has questioned the
manner in which the notices were published. And as far as
the
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50 SUPREME COURT REPORTS ANNOTATED

San Rafael Homeowners Association, Inc. vs. City of
Manila

herein petitioners are concerned their interest are in no

way affected thereby.
4. The next issue raised by the petitioners is that an
incinerator with thermal power plant for garbage and
refuse disposal in the City of Manila cannot be operated on
a self-liquidating basis, as required by Ordinance No. 5274.
The argument is that since all the six bids originally
submitted, one of which precisely offered an incinerator
with thermal power generator, were rejected on the ground
that none of them could be self-liquidating, the only
conclusion that can be derived is that none of the bids
which were submitted subsequently will satisfy the
requirement.
In the first place the argument would be more proper for
prospective bidders who might have been denied the
chance to bid, but not for the herein petitioners, who have
no interest in the bidding per se or in whether or not the
plant to be established will pay for itself. In the second
place it is again premature to speculate on this particular
aspect of the bids. As pointed out by the respondents, they
precisely called for new bids in order to find out if any
incinerator with a thermal power plant can be offered
which can be operated on a self-liquidating basis. If after
the bids are opened it is found that none of them satisfies
this requirement, obviously all of them will be rejected; and
if despite such deficiency a particular bid is accepted then
the corresponding suit to stop the award can be brought by
the proper parties.
The petitioners claim that the specifications prepared by
the respondents, particularly with respect to anti-pollution
devices, are so broad as to preclude competitive bidding.
Again this is an argument that is proper for bidders to
make, but not for the petitioners, to whom this aspect of
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the bidding is a matter of indifference. But in the very

nature of things the specifications could hardly have been
more definite and precise as to details, since there are
different methods of effective pollution control, as to which
the plans are left to the bidders themselves, so that from
the different plans submitted the respondents may make

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Nuisance

the choice. For this purpose it may be noted that the

specifications require that the incinerator be equipped with
complete air pollution control facilities, of a sufficient
capacity and efficiency to meet the standards of the Model
Smoke Law of the American Society of Mechanical
Engineers, as well as with all other auxiliaries or
additional plant facilities that will render the plant offered
self-liquidating.
With respect to the incinerating equipment itself, the
specifications are quite precise and definite as to details as
may be noted in paragraph lo.l.o thereof.
WHEREFORE, We find the present appeal to be without
merit, and hereby affirm the judgment of the court a quo,
with costs against the petitioners-appellants.

          Concepcion, C.J., Reyes, J.B.L., Zaldivar, Castro,

Fernando, Barredo, Makasiar and Esguerra, JJ., concur.
     Teehankee and Antonio, JJ., took no part.

Judgment affirmed.

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