FACTS: During respondent Dick Gordon’s incumbency as a member of the Senate of the Philippines, he was elected Chairman of the PNRC. Petitioners Liban, Bernardo, and Viari allege that by accepting the chairmanship of the PNRC Board of Governors, respondent Gordon has ceased to be a member of the Senate as provided in Section 13, Article VI of the Constitution.
In a Decision of the Supreme Court, it was held that respondent Gordon did not forfeit his seat in the Senate when he accepted the chairmanship of the PNRC Board of Governors, as “the office of the PNRC Chairman is not a government office or an office in a government-owned or controlled corporation for purposes of the prohibition in Section 13, Article VI of the 1987 Constitution.”
The Decision, however, further declared void the PNRC Charter “insofar as it creates the PNRC as a private corporation” and consequently ruled that “the PNRC should incorporate under the Corporation Code and register with the Securities and Exchange Commission if it wants to be a private corporation.”
ISSUE: Whether the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) is a government owned or controlled corporation or a private corporation.
RULING: Neither. The sui generis status of the PNRC is now sufficiently established. Although it is neither a subdivision, agency, or instrumentality of the government, nor a government-owned or controlled corporation or a subsidiary thereof, as succinctly explained in the Decision of July 15, 2009, so much so that respondent, under the Decision, was correctly allowed to hold his position as Chairman thereof concurrently while he served as a Senator, such a conclusion does not ipso facto imply that the PNRC is a “private corporation” within the contemplation of the provision of the Constitution, that must be organized under the Corporation Code. As correctly mentioned by Justice Roberto A. Abad, the sui generis character of PNRC requires us to approach controversies involving the PNRC on a case-to-case basis.
The structure of the PNRC is sui generis¸ being neither strictly private nor public in nature. R.A. No. 95 remains valid and constitutional in its entirety.
