Principle of non suability :

The immunity of the State from suit, known also as the doctrine of sovereign immunity or non-suability of
the State, is expressly provided in Article XVI of the 1987 Constitution
Posted on February 18, 2012by Erineus
The immunity of the State from suit, known also as the doctrine of sovereign immunity or non-suability of the State,
is expressly provided in Article XVI of the 1987 Constitution, viz:
Section 3. The State may not be sued without its consent.
The immunity from suit is based on the political truism that the State, as a sovereign, can do no wrong. Moreover, as
the eminent Justice Holmes said in Kawananakoa v. Polyblank:[6]
A sovereign is exempt from suit, not because of any formal conception or obsolete theory, but on the logical and
practical ground that there can be no legal right as against the authority that makes the law on which the right
depends.
Practical considerations dictate the establishment of an immunity from suit in favor of the State. Otherwise, and
the State is suable at the instance of every other individual, government service may be severely obstructed and
public safety endangered because of the number of suits that the State has to defend against.

How the Philippine Government Is Organized

The Philippines is a republic with a presidential form of government wherein power is equally divided among its
three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial.

One basic corollary in a presidential system of government is the principle of separation of powers wherein
legislation belongs to Congress, execution to the Executive, and settlement of legal controversies to the Judiciary.
The Legislative branch is authorized to make laws, alter, and repeal them through the power vested in the
Philippine Congress. This institution is divided into the Senate and the House of Representatives.
 The Executive branch carries out laws. It is composed of the President and the Vice President who are
elected by direct popular vote and serve a term of six years. The Constitution grants the President authority
to appoint his Cabinet. These departments form a large portion of the countrys bureaucracy.

The Judicial branch evaluates laws. It holds the power to settle controversies involving rights that are legally
demandable and enforceable. This branch determines whether or not there has been a grave abuse of
discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part and instrumentality of the government. It is
made up of a Supreme Court and lower courts.
Each branch of government can change acts of the other branches as follows:
The President can veto laws passed by Congress.

Congress confirms or rejects the President's appointments and can remove the President from office in
exceptional circumstances.

The Justices of the Supreme Court, who can overturn unconstitutional laws, are appointed by the President
and confirmed by the Senate.
The Philippine government seeks to act in the best interests of its citizens through this system of checks and
balances.
The Constitution expressly grants the Supreme Court the power of Judicial Review as the power to declare a treaty,
international or executive agreement, law, presidential decree, proclamation, order, instruction, ordinance or
regulation unconstitutional.
Legislative Department
The Legislative Branch enacts legislation, confirms or rejects Presidential appointments, and has the authority to
declare war. This branch includes Congress (the Senate and House of Representatives) and several agencies that
provide support services to Congress.
Senate The Senate shall be composed of twenty-four Senators who shall be elected at large by the
qualified voters of the Philippines, as may be provided by law.

House of Representatives The House of Representatives shall be composed of not more than two hundred
and fifty members, unless otherwise fixed by law, who shall be elected from legislative districts apportioned
among the provinces, cities, and the Metropolitan Manila area in accordance with the number of their
respective inhabitants, and on the basis of a uniform and progressive ratio, and those who, as provided by
law, shall be elected through a party-list system of registered national, regional, and sectoral parties or
organizations.
The party-list representatives shall constitute twenty per cent of the total number of representatives including those
under the party list. For three consecutive terms after the ratification of this Constitution, one-half of the seats
allocated to party-list representatives shall be filled, as provided by law, by selection or election from the labor,
peasant, urban poor, indigenous cultural communities, women, youth, and such other sectors as may be provided by
law, except the religious sector.
Executive Department
The executive branch carries out and enforces laws. It includes the President, Vice President, the Cabinet, executive
departments, independent agencies, and other boards, commissions, and committees.
Key roles of the executive branch include:
President The President leads the country. He/she is the head of state, leader of the national government,
and Commander in Chief of all armed forces of the Philippines. The President serves a six-year term and
cannot be re-elected.

Vice President The Vice President supports the President. If the President is unable to serve, the Vice
President becomes President. He/she serves a six-year term.

The Cabinet Cabinet members serve as advisors to the President. They include the Vice President and the
heads of executive departments. Cabinet members are nominated by the President and must be confirmed
by the Commission of Appointments.
Judicial Department
The judicial branch interprets the meaning of laws, applies laws to individual cases, and decides if laws violate the
Constitution. The judicial power shall be vested in one Supreme Court and in such lower courts as may be
established by law.
Judicial power includes the duty of the courts of justice to settle actual controversies involving rights which are
legally demandable and enforceable, and to determine whether or not there has been a grave abuse of discretion
amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality of the Government. The
judicial branch interprets the meaning of laws, applies laws to individual cases, and decides if laws violate the
Constitution.

FUNCTIONS OF THE GOVT. :

Constituent functions the usual function of the government. Those which constitute the very bonds of society and
are compulsory in nature
(1) The keeping of order and providing for the protection of persons and property from violence and robbery.
(2) The fixing of the legal relations between man and wife and between parents and children.
(3) The regulation of the holding, transmission, and interchange of property, and the determination of its liabilities
for debt or for crime.
4) The determination of contract rights between individuals.
(5) The definition and punishment of crime.
(6) The administration of justice in civil causes.
(7) The administration of the political duties, privileges, and relations of citizens.
(8) Dealings of the state with foreign powers: the preservation of the state from external danger or encroachment
and the advancement of its international interests.

Ministrant functions - other functions which are undertaken, not by way of governing, but by way of advancing the
general interests of society, - functions which are optional, being necessary only according to standards of
convenience or expediency, and not according to standards of existence

(1) The regulation of trade and industry. ( include the coinage of money and the establishment of standard weights
and measures, laws against forestalling and engrossing, the licensing of trades, etc., as well as the great matters of
tariffs, navigation laws, and the like.)
(2) Public works
(3) Public Charity

Doctrine of parens patriae (father of his country). The doctrine [referring] to the inherent power and authority of the
state to provide protection of the person and property of a person non sui juries. Under that doctrine, the state has
the sovereign power of guardianship over persons under disability. Thus, the state is considered the parens patriae
of minors. [Govt. of the P. I. v. Monte de Piedad, 35 Phil. 728].

DE JURE GOVERNMENT :
the term that applies to the legally constituted government that has been placed in power in accordance with the
laws of the land.Has rightful title but no power or control, either because this has been withdrawn from it has not
yet actually entered into the exercise thereof.

DE FACTO GOVERNMENT :
A government of fact, that is, it actually exercise power or control but without legal title.
DE FACTO AND DE JURE GOVERNMENTS
A de jure government (government of law) > is an organized government of a state which has the general support of
the people.
A de facto government (government of fact) > is a government which actually exercises power or control but without
legal title.
There are three kinds of de facto government:

1. the government that gets possession and control of, or usurps by force or by the voice of the majority, the
rightful legal government and maintains itself against the will of the latter;
2. that established as an independent government by the inhabitants of a country who rise in insurrection
against the parent state; and
3. that which is established and maintained by military forces who invade and occupy a territory of the enemy
in the course of war, and which is denominated as a government of paramount force.

Art. 415. The following are immovable property:

(1) Land, buildings, roads and constructions of all kinds adhered to the soil;

*These are immovable as they are more or less of a permanent structure independent and forms an integral part of
the land. Land is immovable by nature and by definition.

(2) Trees, plants, and growing fruits, while they are attached to the land or form an integral part of an immovable;

*Since trees and plants are annexed to the land, they form part of it and may even be part of the property of the
owner of the land in where they are attached. They are immovable if they are spontaneous products of the soil and
incorporated to the land through cultivation and labor. They may either be immovable by incorporation or by
nature.

(3) Everything attached to an immovable in a fixed manner, in such a way that it cannot be separated therefrom
without breaking the material or deterioration of the object;

*Another thing attached to another principal immovable would also make it immovable if the permanency of
attachment of the thing is almost tantamount to its unification to the principal immovable that their separation
would cause damage and deterioration. This is another example of immovable by incorporation.

(4) Statues, reliefs, paintings or other objects for use or ornamentation, placed in buildings or on lands by the owner
of the immovable in such a manner that it reveals the intention to attach them permanently to the tenements;

*It must be noted that these objects must be placed by their owners permanently to the land or building even if such
land or building is not owned by him. The intent of the owner of the objects must be looked upon so as to know that
he wanted to incorporate it permanently which would make these objects also immovables.

(5) Machinery, receptacles, instruments or implements intended by the owner of the tenement for an industry or
works which may be carried on in a building or on a piece of land, and which tend directly to meet the needs of the
said industry or works;

*For these objects to become immovable, these must be placed by the owner of the tenement or the property
where these objects would be attached and where the industry or works would be carried. These objects must also
be essential to said industry or works.

(6) Animal houses, pigeon-houses, beehives, fish ponds or breeding places of similar nature, in case their owner has
placed them or preserves them with the intention to have them permanently attached to the land, and forming a
permanent part of it; the animals in these places are included;
*The constructions mentioned must be intended by the owner to be permanently a part of the land. The animals
though can be transferred from place to place are also included.

(7) Fertilizer actually used on a piece of land;

*These are immovable by destination. If they are used, they form part of the land.

(8) Mines, quarries, and slag dumps, while the matter thereof forms part of the bed, and waters either running or
stagnant;

*While these resources remain unsevered, they are considered immovable.

(9) Docks and structures which, though floating, are intended by their nature and object to remain at a fixed place on
a river, lake, or coast;

*It can be inferred in the way they are constructed that they are to stay in fixed place and as a permanent fixture to
their location.

(10) Contracts for public works, and servitudes and other real rights over immovable property. (334a)

*These are considered real property just because the law said so. Real property itself, produces real right or real
right is always regarded as real property.

Art. 416. The following things are deemed to be personal property:

(1) Those movables susceptible of appropriation which are not included in the preceding article;

(2) Real property which by any special provision of law is considered as personal property;

(3) Forces of nature which are brought under control by science; and

(4) In general, all things which can be transported from place to place without impairment of the real property to
which they are fixed. (335a

Art. 428. The owner has the right to enjoy and dispose of a thing, without other limitations than those established by
law.The owner has also a right of action against the holder and possessor of the thing in order to recover it. (348a)
Art. 429. The owner or lawful possessor of a thing has the right to exclude any person from the enjoyment and
disposal thereof. For this purpose, he may use such force as may be reasonably necessary to repel or prevent an
actual or threatened unlawful physical invasion or usurpation of his property. (n)

Art. 438. Hidden treasure belongs to the owner of the land, building, or other property on which it is found.
Nevertheless, when the discovery is made on the property of another, or of the State or any of its subdivisions, and
by chance, one-half thereof shall be allowed to the finder. If the finder is a trespasser, he shall not be entitled to any
share of the treasure.
If the things found be of interest to science of the arts, the State may acquire them at their just price, which shall be
divided in conformity with the rule stated. (351a)
Art. 440. The ownership of property gives the right by accession to everything which is produced thereby, or which is
incorporated or attached thereto, either naturally or artificially. (353)