CASE DIGEST : Bacani Vs Nacoco

G.R. No. L-9657 Bacani Vs Nacoco . November 29, 1956

Facts:  Plaintiffs herein are court stenographers assigned in Branch VI of the Court of First Instance of Manila. During the pendency of Civil Case No. 2293 of said court, entitled Francisco Sycip vs. National Coconut Corporation, AssistantCorporate Counsel Federico Alikpala, counsel for Defendant ,requested said stenographers for copies of thetranscript of the stenographic notes taken by them during the hearing. Plaintiffs complied with the request by delivering to Counsel Alikpala the needed transcript containing 714 pages and thereafter submitted to him their billsfor the payment of their fees. The National Coconut Corporation paid the amount of P564 to Leopoldo T. Bacaniand P150 to Mateo A. Matoto for said transcript at the rate of P1 per page the Auditor General required the Plaintiffs to reimburse said amounts on the strength of a circular of the Department of Justice wherein the opinion was expressed that the National Coconut Corporation, being a government entity, was exempt from the payment of the fees in question.

Issue  : WON NACOCO is a Government Entity


Held:   They do not acquire that status for the simple reason that they donot come under the classification of municipal or public corporation. Take for instance the National CoconutCorporation. While it was organized with the purpose of ³adjusting the coconut industry to a position independent of trade preferences in the United States´ and of providing ³Facilities for the better curing of copra products and the proper utilization of coconut by-products´, a function which our government has chosen to exercise to promote thecoconut industry, however, it was given a corporate power separate and distinct from our government, for it wasmade subject to the provisions of our Corporation Law in so far as its corporate existence and the powers that it mayexercise are concerned (sections 2 and 4, Commonwealth Act No. 518). It may sue and be sued in the same manner as any other private corporations, and in this sense it is an entity different from our government. As this Court hasaptly said, ³The mere fact that the Government happens to be a majority stockholder does not make it a public. the term ³Government of the Republic of the Philippines´ used in section 2 of the Revised Administrative Code refers only to that government entity through which the functions of thegovernment are exercised as an attribute of sovereignty, and in this are included those arms through which political authority is made effective whether they be provincial, municipal or other form of local government. These are whatwe call municipal corporations. They do not include government entities which are given a corporate personality separate and distinct from the government and which are governed by the Corporation Law. Their powers, dutiesand liabilities have to be determined in the light of that law and of their corporate charters. They do not thereforecome within the exemption clause prescribed in section 16, Rule 130 of our Rules of Court