Case Digest: Ernesto M. Maceda vs. Energy Regulatory Board, et al.

18 July 1991         ::             G.R. No. 96266    

Medialdea, J.

FACTS:

Upon the outbreak of the Persian Gulf conflict on August 1990, private respondents oil companies filed with the ERB their respective applications on oil price increases.  ERB then issued an order granting a provisional increase of P1.42 per liter.  Petitioner Maceda filed a petition for Prohibition seeking to nullify said increase. 

ISSUE:

Whether or not the decisions of the Energy Regulatory Board should be subject to presidential review.

HELD:

Pursuant to Section 8 of E.O. No. 172, while hearing is indispensable, it does not preclude the Board from ordering a provisional increase subject to final disposition of whether or not to make it permanent or to reduce or increase it further or to deny the application.  The provisional increase is akin to a temporary restraining order, which are given ex-parte.

The Court further noted the Solicitor General’s comments that “the ERB is not averse to the idea of a presidential review of its decision,” except that there is no law at present authorizing the same.  The Court suggested that it will be under the scope of the legislative to allow the presidential review of the decisions of the ERB since, despite its being a quasi-judicial body, it is still “ an administrative body under the Office of the President whose decisions should be appealed to the President under the established principle of exhaustion of administrative remedies,” especially on a matter as transcendental as oil price increases which affect the lives of almost all Filipinos.