Admin Law Research No.

1 (15 April 2020)

GENERAL INSTRUCTION: Consistent with the instruction of the SBU Law Dean on 15
April 2020, all my students are required to answer these questions with basis, guided by
our syllabi on the subjects concerned. Submit individual papers (answers only/max of 3
pages) via email (to be collected and compressed by the beadles) not later than 6 PM of
30 April 2020. - RAP

A. Public Corporations

1. May LGUs deny entry of food cargoes to protect the health of their constituents if
the National Government (NG) has ordered the unhampered movement thereof
during the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ)?
2. May Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte prohibit the Iglesia ni Cristo members from
holding pagsamba (or gathering in church to worship) as part of social
distancing?
3. May the LGU of Angeles, Pampanga, invoking the LGC’s General Welfare
Clause, prohibit all hospitals therein from accepting COVID-19 patients from
another LGU to ensure access to healthcare by its own constituents albeit DOH’s
policy on non-refusal of COVID-19 patients?
4. May a city mayor allow certain activities being regulated by his LGU (like tricycle
and pedicab operations) to continue despite the order of the NG for suspension
of mass transportation and strict observance of social distancing during the
ECQ?
5. May the LGU of Marikina allow the operation of Covid-19 testing center by relying
on its local autonomy, without need of securing DOH accreditation?
6. May barangay officials refuse to assist the DSWD in identifying those who are
entitled to receive the COVID-19 related-financial assistance granted under RA
No. 11469 (Bayanihan Law) within their respective barangays?

B. Election Law

1. May Comelec, on its own, decide to move to a later date the plebiscite set by law
(i.e., on 11 May 2020 per RA No. 11259) to ratify the creation of three new
provinces out of Palawan, given the pandemic?
2. Assuming Senator Koko is criminally held liable for violating the home quarantine
requirement for COVID-19 positive, will his criminal conviction render him
ineligible to run for local elective position in the upcoming elections?

C. Administrative Law and Law on Public Officers

1. Does IATF-EID, a government body created by Executive Order No. 168

(s.2014), have quasi-legislative power? How about quasi-judicial power?
2. Does IATF-EID have power to penalize violators of ECQ?
3. May Senator Koko Pimentel be held liable – apart from criminal – for violating the
home quarantine requirement for COVID-19 positive?
4. Assuming the President appoints a prominent businessman to be an IATF-EID
member representing the private sector, does such appointment make him a
public officer?
 Admin Law Research No. 1 (15 April 2020)

5. Is the IATF-EID empowered to require the mandatory rendition of medical

services by all Filipino healthcare workers (i.e., doctors and nurses) to combat
the pandemic?
6. Assuming the Supreme Court declares President Duterte as permanently
disabled to govern since the onset of the ECQ on 17 March 2020, does such
ruling render all his official acts 1 since then relative to the government’s fight
against COVID-19 completely void and without any legal effect?

1
Like his approval of RA No. 11469 aka “Bayanihan We Heal as One” Act which gave him emergency
powers to address the pandemic.