OGCC CIRCULAR NO. 002 SERIES OF 2005
FOR |
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ALL CLIENT-GOVERNMENT OWNED OR CONTROLLED CORPORATIONS (GOCCs) |
| SUBJECT |
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AUTHORITY OF THE OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT CORPORATE COUNSEL OVER ALL LEGAL MATTERS HANDLED SEPARATELY BY LEGAL DEPARTMENTS OF GOCCs. |
| DATE |
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7 NOVEMBER 2005 |
The Supreme Court, in the case entitled "Land Bank of the Philippines vs. Teresita Panlilio-Luciano" (G.R. No. 165428, April 27, 2005 and July 13, 2005) emphasized the powers and authority of the OGCC expressly provided in Section 10, Chapter 3, Title III, Book IV of the 1987 Administrative Code, and declared that:
1. The OGCC is the principal law office of all government-owned or controlled corporations, their subsidiaries, other corporate offsprings and government acquired asset corporations;
2. The OGCC exercises control and supervision over all legal departments or divisions separately maintained by the GOCCs;
3. The OGCC, in the exercise of its control and supervision over all legal departments of GOCCs, must handle all litigations, either alone or in active collaboration with the concerned legal department or legal officer; and
4. There are permissible levels of delegation of authority that OGCC may cede to the legal departments it supervises in the handling of litigation.
The OGCC, therefore, on the basis of the foregoing Supreme Court pronouncement, shall require all GOCCs to refer to the Office all their cases, including those that are pending before all courts, quasi-judicial agencies and tribunals to the Office. We shall review these cases and determine if we shall directly handle the same or actively collaborate with the handling legal officer of the concerned GOCC. We are doing this to forestall any issue that an adverse party may raise on the authority of the concerned legal department in handling a particular case, or prevent a situation that the petition or complaint will be unacted upon by the court unless our Office participate in the proceedings, just like what the Supreme Court did to Land Bank in the Luciano case.
To address the concerns of various legal departments on the extent of their authority to handle cases for or against the GOCCs, the OGCC, following the Luciano case as mentioned above, is currently working out with its rules and regulations implementing its mandate of control and supervision over all legal departments of GOCCs. These rules will provide the basic framework in the handling of all legal requirements of GOCCs, including the levels of delegation that OGCC may give to the legal departments of various GOCCs, as well as the adoption of schemes of representation, which are economical and practical for both OGCC and legal departments of GOCCs.
Pending the adoption of said implementing rules, all GOCCs are required to submit the following within fifteen (15) days from receipt hereof:
1. List of all cases pending before any court, tribunal or quasi-judicial agencies; and
2. List of lawyers, whether retained or member of the legal staff, handling all litigations;
Please provide the Office with the said lists using the forms attached hereto, and if possible, kindly make a soft copy of the same in a floppy disk.
For your compliance and information.
AGNES VST DEVANADERA
Government Corporate Counsel
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