THE SUPREME COURT, through Justice Minita V. Chico-Nazario, recently upheld the issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction by a trial court stopping the National Power Corporation (Napocor) from activating its high tension wires that passed through a residential area.

Reversing the Court of Appeals and in effect upholding the Makati Regional Trial Court’s injunction, the Court’s First Dvision ruled that PD 1818, which prohibits courts from issuing restraining orders or preliminary injunctions in cases involving infrastructure and natural resource development projects of the government and public utilities operated by the government, was not meant to be a blanket prohibition so as to disregard the fundamental right to health, safety, and well-being of a community guaranteed by the fundamental law of the land.

“[W]hat Presidential Decree No. 1818 aims to avert is the untimely frustration of government infrastructure projects, particularly by provisional remedies, to the detriment of the greater good by disrupting the pursuit of essential government projects or frustrate the economic development effort of the nation,” the Court said. “[T]he far reaching irreversible effects to human safety should be the primordial concerns over presumed economic benefits per se as alleged by Napocor,” ruled the Court First Division.

In 1996, Napocor began the construction of 29 decagon-shaped steel poles or towers with a height of 53.4 meters to support overhead high tension cables in connection with its 230 Kilovolt Sucat-Araneta-Balintawak Power Transmission Project. Said transmission line passes through the Sergio Osmeña, Sr. Highway (South Superhighway), the perimeter of Fort Bonifacio, and Dasmariñas Village proximate to Tamarind Road, where petitioners’ homes are located.

The Court noted that despite conflicting results on studies commissioned by both parties as to whether or not the transmission lines are safe, the possibility that the exposure to electromagnetic radiation causes cancer and other disorders is still within the realm of scientific scale of probability. (Hernandez, et al. v. Napocor, GR No. 145328, March 23, 2006)