FACTS: These cases have been consolidated because they all involve the doctrine of state immunity. In GR No. 76607, the private respondents are suing several officers of the US Air Force stationed in Clark Air Base in connection with the bidding conducted by them for contracts for barbering services in the said base.
In GR No. 79470, Fabian Genove filed a complaint for damages against petitioners Lamachia, Belsa, Cartalla and Orascion for his dismissal as cook in the US Air Force Recreation Center at Camp John Hay Air Station in Baguio City. It had been ascertained after investigation, from the testimony of Belsa, Cartalla and Orascion, that Genove had poured urine into the soup stock used in cooking the vegetables served to the club customers. Lamachia, as club manager, suspended him and thereafter referred the case to a board of arbitrators conformably to the collective bargaining agreement between the center and its employees. The board unanimously found him guilty and recommended his dismissal. Genove’s reaction was to file his complaint against the individual petitioners.
In GR No. 80018, Luis Bautista, who was employed as a barracks boy in Cano O’ Donnell, an extension of Clark Air Bas, was arrested following a buy-bust operation conducted by the individual petitioners who are officers of the US Air Force and special agents of the Air Force Office of Special Investigators. On the basis of the sworn statements made by them, an information for violation of R.A. 6425, otherwise known as the Dangerous Drugs Act, was filed against Bautista in the RTC of Tarlac. Said officers testified against him at his trial. Bautista was dismissed from his employment. He then filed a complaint against the individual petitioners claiming that it was because of their acts that he was removed.
In GR No. 80258, a complaint for damages was filed by the private respondents against the herein petitioners (except the US), for injuries sustained by the plaintiffs as a result of the acts of the defendants. There is a conflict of factual allegations here. According to the plaintiffs, the defendants beat them up, handcuffed them and unleashed dogs on them which bit them in several parts of their bodies and caused extensive injuries to them. The defendants deny this and claim that plaintiffs were arrested for theft and were bitten by the dogs because they were struggling and resisting arrest. In a motion to dismiss the complaint, the US and the individually named defendants argued that the suit was in effect a suit against the US, which had not given its consent to be sued.
ISSUE: Whether the defendants were also immune from suit under the RP-US Bases Treaty for acts done by them in the performance of their official duties.
HELD: The rule that a State may not be sued without its consent is one of the generally accepted principles of international law that were have adopted as part of the law of our land. Even without such affirmation, we would still be bound by the generally accepted principles of international law under the doctrine of incorporation. Under this doctrine, as accepted by the majority of the states, such principles are deemed incorporated in the law of every civilized state as a condition and consequence of its membership in the society of nations. All states are sovereign equals and cannot assert jurisdiction over one another.
While the doctrine appears to prohibit only suits against the state without its consent, it is also applicable to complaints filed against officials of the states for acts allegedly performed by them in the discharge of their duties. The rule is that if the judgment against such officials will require the state itself to perform an affirmative act to satisfy the same, the suit must be regarded as against the state although it has not been formally impleaded.
When the government enters into a contract, it is deemed to have descended to the level of the other contracting party and divested of its sovereign immunity from suit with its implied consent. In the case o US, the customary law of international law on state immunity is expressed with more specificity in the RP-US Bases Treaty. There is no question that the US, like any other state, will be deemed to have impliedly waived its non-suability if it has entered into a contract in its proprietory or private capacity. It is only when the contract involves its sovereign or governmental capacity that no such waiver may be implied.
It is clear from a study of the records of GR No. 80018 that the petitioners therein were acting in the exercise of their official functions when they conducted the buy-bust operations against the complainant and thereafter testified against him at his trial. It follows that for discharging their duties as agents of the US, they cannot be directly impleaded for acts imputable to their principal, which has not given its consent to be sued.
As for GR No. 80018, the record is too meager to indicate what really happened. The needed inquiry first be made by the lower court so it may assess and resolve the conflicting claims of the parties on the basis of evidence that has yet to be presented at the trial.
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