Partylist lawmakers Rodel Batocabe and Christopher Co of Ako Bicol have proposed a law transferring the jurisdiction of cases involving final judgments on housing and land use disputes from the Office of the President to the Court of Appeals.

Co and Batocabe said these cases specifically involve judgments, resolutions, orders and awards issued by the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB).

The two legislators are partylist allies of the National Unity Party under the Coalition for Peace and Development.

Rep Victoria Noel (An Waray partylist) is also a co-author of the proposal, outlined under House Bill 3214.

The bill seeks to amend Batas Pambansa Blg. 129, otherwise known as the Judiciary Reorganization Act of 1980.


"The Court of Appeals, the judicial body which generally has the exclusive appellate jurisdiction over all final judgments, resolutions, orders or awards of quasi-judicial agencies, should take cognizance of cases from the HLURB in order to address the speedy resolution and disposition of HLURB cases," Batocabe said.



Batocabe noted that  while the HLURB is the planning, regulatory, and quasi-judicial instrumentality of the government for land use development, the nature of cases appealed before it are disputes involving private rights.



Even when appealed cases rarely involve matters pertaining to the supervision and control of the Office of the President over the HLURB, 75% of the cases appealed before  it  are cases from the regulatory agency, Batocabe said.



This incongruity stems from the 2011 Revised Rules of Procedures of the HLURB and its Memorandum Circular No. 28, which states that a decision, resolution, or order of the HLURB Board of Commissioners is appealable to the Office of the President, Batocabe added.

He said Executive Order No. 648, and Presidential Decrees No. 257 and 1344  were the bases for these HLURB directives.