PERIOD TO APPEAL IS 15 DAYS

> The period within which to appeal the decision of the Board of Commissioners of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board to the Office of the President is 15 days from the receipt of the assailed decision, pursuant to Section 15 of Presidential Decree 957

> The 30-day period mentioned in the Rules of Procedure of the HLURB is not applicable because special laws providing for a remedy of appeal to the Office of the President must prevail over the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board Rules of Procedure

As resolved in UNITED OVERSEAS BANK PHILIPPINES, INC., versus SIONY CHING and TOWNTEC REALTY & DEVELOPMENT CORP.¹:

As correctly pointed out by the Office of the President, the period to appeal the decision of the HLURB Board of Commissioners to the Office of the President has long been settled in the case of SGMC Realty Corporation v. Office of the President,[6] as reiterated in Maxima Realty Management and Development Corporation v. Parkway Real Estate Development Corporation,[7] where we ruled that the period of appeal is 15 days from receipt thereof pursuant to Section 15[8] of PD No. 957 and Section 2[9] of PD No. 1344 which are special laws that provide an exception to Section 1 of Administrative Order No. 18.  Thus:

x x x Administrative Order No. 18, series of 1987, issued by public respondent [Office of the President] reads:

“Section 1.       Unless otherwise governed by special laws, an appeal to the Office of the President shall be taken within thirty (30) days from receipt by the aggrieved party of the decision/resolution/order complained of or appealed from.” 

As pointed out by the public respondent, the aforecited administrative order allows aggrieved party to file its appeal with the Office of the President within thirty (30) days from receipt of the decision complained of. Nonetheless, such thirty-day period is subject to the qualification that there are no other statutory periods of appeal applicable. If there are special laws governing particular cases which provide for a shorter or longer reglementary period, the same shall prevail over the thirty-day period provided for in the administrative order. This is in line with the rule in statutory construction that an administrative rule or regulation, in order to be valid, must not contradict but conform to the provisions of the enabling law.  

We note that indeed there are special laws that mandate a shorter period of fifteen (15) days within which to appeal a case to public respondent. First, Section 15 of Presidential Decree No. 957 provides that the decisions of the National Housing Authority (NHA) shall become final and executory after the lapse of fifteen (15) days from the date of receipt of the decision. Second, Section 2 of Presidential Decree No. 1344 states that decisions of the National Housing Authority shall become final and executory after the lapse of fifteen (15) days from the date of its receipt. The latter decree provides that the decisions of NHA is appealable only to the Office of the President. Further, we note that the regulatory functions of NHA relating to housing and land development has been transferred to Human Settlements Regulatory Commission, now known as HLURB. Thus, said presidential issuances providing for a reglementary period of appeal of fifteen days apply in this case.[10]

¹ G.R. No. 170695, 2006 April 7