SUMMONS UPON PUBLIC CORPORATIONS

                          Summons is a writ by which the defendant is notified of the action brought against him.  Service of such writ is the means by which the court acquires jurisdiction over his person.  Jurisdiction over the person of the defendant is acquired through coercive process, generally by the service of summons issued by the court, or through the defendant's voluntary appearance or submission to the court.( Guiguinto Credit Cooperative, Inc. v. Torres, G.R. No. 170926, September 15, 2006, 502 SCRA 182, 189-190.)

Section 13, Rule 14 of the Rules of Court states that:

SEC. 13. Service upon public corporations. – When the defendant is the Republic of the Philippines, service may be effected on the Solicitor General; in case of a province, city or municipality, or like public corporations, service may be effected on its executive head, or on such other officer or officers as the law or the court may direct.  (Emphasis ours.)

             Jurisprudence further instructs that when a suit is directed against an unincorporated government agency, which, because it is unincorporated, possesses no juridical personality of its own, the suit is against the agency's principal, i.e., the State. (Philippine Rock Industries, Inc. v. Board of Liquidators, 259 Phil. 650, 655-656 (1989). See also Farolan, Jr. v. Court of Tax Appeals, G.R. No. 42204, January 21, 1993, 217 SCRA 298, 306.)  In the similar case of Heirs of Mamerto Manguiat v. Court of Appeals, (G.R. Nos. 150768 and 160176, August 20, 2008, 562 SCRA 422.) where summons was served on the Bureau of Telecommunications which was an agency attached to the Department of Transportation and Communications, we held that:

Rule 14, Section 13 of the 1997 Rules of Procedure provides:

SEC. 13.                Service upon public corporations. — When the defendant is the Republic of the Philippines, service may be effected on the Solicitor General; in case of a province, city or municipality, or like public corporations, service may be effected on its executive head, or on such other officer or officers as the law or the court may direct.

        It is clear under the Rules that where the defendant is the Republic of the Philippines, service of summons must be made on the Solicitor General. The BUTEL is an agency attached to the Department of Transportation and Communications created under E.O. No. 546 on July 23, 1979, and is in charge of providing telecommunication facilities, including telephone systems to government offices. It also provides its services to augment limited or inadequate existing similar private communication facilities. It extends its services to areas where no communication facilities exist yet; and assists the private sector engaged in telecommunication services by providing and maintaining backbone telecommunication network. It is indisputably part of the Republic, and summons should have been served on the Solicitor General (Republic of the Phils.  vs. Alfredo Domingo, G.R. No. 175299. September 14, 2011, LEONARDO – DE CASTRO, J.).