ABP v. ERC

Doctrine: The remedies of certiorari and prohibition are necessarily broader in scope and reach, and the writ of certiorari or prohibition may be issued to correct errors of jurisdiction committed not only by a tribunal, corporation, board or officer exercising judicial, quasi-judicial or ministerial functions but also to set right, undo and restrain any act of grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction by any branch or instrumentality of the Government, even if the latter does not exercise judicial, quasi-judicial or ministerial functions.

Facts: ABP filed a petition for certiorari and prohibition with an application for a temporary restraining order and/or writ of preliminary injunction. The petition seeks to declare as void ERC Resolution No. 1, Series of 2016 (ERC Clarificatory Resolution). The petition also seeks that this Court direct the ERC to disapprove the Power Supply Agreements (PSAs) of the Distribution Utilities (DUs) submitted after 7 November 2015 for failure to conduct Competitive Selection Process (CSP). The petition further asks the Court to order ERC to implement CSP in accordance with the Department of Energy (DOE) Circular No. DC2015-06-0008 (2015 DOE Circular) and ERC Resolution No. 13, Series of 2015 (CSP Guidelines).

Issue: Whether or not ABP’s petition for certiorari and prohibition is correct.

Held: The ERC does not have the statutory authority to postpone the date of effectivity of CSP, and thereby cannot amend the 2015 DOE Circular.

Petitioner ABP correctly filed a petition for certiorari and prohibition before this Court.

[T]he remedies of certiorari and prohibition are necessarily broader in scope and reach, and the writ of certiorari or prohibition may be issued to correct errors of jurisdiction committed not only by a tribunal, corporation, board or officer exercising judicial, quasi-judicial or ministerial functions but also to set right, undo and restrain any act of grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction by any branch or instrumentality of the Government, even if the latter does not exercise judicial, quasi-judicial or ministerial functions. This application is expressly authorized by the text of the second paragraph of Section 1, [Article 8 of the 1987 Constitution].

Not every abuse of discretion can be occasion for this Court to exercise its jurisdiction. Grave abuse of discretion means "such capricious and whimsical exercise of judgment as is equivalent to lack of jurisdiction, or, in other words where the power is exercised in an arbitrary or despotic manner by reason of passion or personal hostility, and it must be so patent and gross as to amount to an evasion of positive duty or to a virtual refusal to perform the duty enjoined or to act at all in contemplation of law. It is not sufficient that a tribunal, in the exercise of its power, abused its discretion, such abuse must be grave."