10/12/2019 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly Thus, the Court in The Baguio Regreening Movement, Inc. v. Masweng (Baguio Regreening)[37] held: Lastly, however, this Court ruled that although the NCIP has the authority to issue temporary restraining orders and writs of injunction, it was not convinced that private respondents were entitled to the relief granted by the Commission. Proclamation No. 15 does not appear to be a definitive recognition of private respondents' ancestral land claim, as it merely identifies the Molintas and Gumangan families as claimants of a portion of the Busol Forest Reservation, but does not acknowledge vested rights over the same. Since it is required before the issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction that claimants show the existence of a right to be protected, this Court, in G.R. No. 180206, ultimately granted the petition of the City Government of Baguio and set aside the writ of preliminary injunction issued therein. In the case at bar, petitioners and private respondents present the very same arguments and counter-arguments with respect to the writ of injunction, against fencing of the Busol Watershed Reservation. The same legal issues are thus being litigated in G.R. No. 180206 and in the case at bar, except that different writs of injunction are being assailed. In both cases, petitioners claim (1) that Atty. Masweng is prohibited from issuing temporary restraining orders and writs of preliminary injunction against government infrastructure projects; (2) that Baguio City is beyond the ambit of the IPRA; and (3) that private respondents have not shown a clear right to be protected. Private respondents, on the other hand, presented the same allegations in their Petition for Injunction, particularly the alleged recognition made under Proclamation No. 15 in favor of their ancestors. While res judicata does not apply on account of the different subject matters of the case at bar and G.R. No. 180206 (they assail different writs of injunction, albeit issued by the same hearing officer), we are constrained by the principle of stare decisis to grant the instant petition.[38] Like the private respondents in City Government of Baguio and in Baguio Regreening, herein claimants principally rely on Proclamation No. 15 as basis for their ancestral land claims in the Busol Forest Reserve. Thus, the Court is constrained to similarly rule that the injunctive relief issued in the present case are without basis because the applicants failed to establish a clear and legal right. After all, it has been settled that Proclamation No. 15 is not a definite recognition or their ancestral land claims. It is noteworthy that in the contempt case, Atty. Masweng was cited for indirect contempt for issuing TROs and preliminary injunctions in NCIP Case Nos. 29-CAR-09 and 31-CAR-09. He was found in indirect contempt because the Court had already ruled that the occupants in the Busol Water Reserve had no clear legal right warranting the issuance of preventive remedies. In the present case, the preventive writs issued in NCIP Case Nos. 29-CAR-09 and 31-CAR-09 themselves are being questioned. Thus, the Court had, on more than one occasion, found occupants of the Busol Watershed Reservation not entitled to the preventive writ for lack of a clear legal right, considering that their recognition claims were still pending before the NCIP. elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/64367 10/13