PLJ volume 37 number 1 -01- Deogracias Eufemio

ployees,or failing in this, it may issue an order fixing the terms and
conditions of employment. It has no other alternative. It cannot
throw the case ou~on the assumption that the certification was erroneous."
For certification is "a power that the law gives to the
President, the propriety of its exercise being a matter that only devolves
upon him. The same is not the concern of the Industrial
Court." And since the law did not prescribe in what form the Chief
Executive should certify an industrial dispute to the CIR, so a letter
signed by the Executive Secretary "by authority of the President"
officially referring the controversy to the CIR, is sufficient.40 The
mere fact that in previous cases, the President personally signed the
letters certifying the labor disputes to the CIR, is not controlling.41
(c) Disposition of lands acquired pursuant to Com. Act No.
539.
"The President of the Philippines is authorized to acquire privat(:
lands or any interest therein, through purchase or expropriation, and
to subdivide the same into home lots or small farms for resale at reason·
able prices and under such conditions ,a.s he may fix to their' bona fide
tenants or occupants or to priva.te individuals who will work the lands
themselves and who are qualified to ,acquire and own lands in the Philippines."
"The President may sell to the provinces and municipalities portions
of lands acquired under this Act of sufficient size and convenient location
for public squares or plazas, parks, streets, markets, cemeteries, schools,
municipal or town hall, and other public buildings."
In the case of Juat v. L.T.A.,42 the Supreme Court, in harmonizing
these two provisions of Com. Act No. 539, held that since there
is no express provision which excludesthe lots that may be acquired
under Section 1 from sales under Section 10, "it follows as a logical
conclusion that the choice or discretion to sell lands under either
section is with the President whose choice, once exercised, becomes
final and binding upon the government." Thus, the Court declared
that the act of the Secretary of Agriculture in executing a deed of
sale covering a lot which formed part of the TambobongEstate, 43
in favor of the province of Rizal," despite plaintiffs' claim that they
•• GSISEA, et al. v. CIR & GSIS, G.R. No. L-18734, Dec. 30, 1961.