04/02/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly cannot be invoked. Even assuming arguendo that an IFMA can be considered a contract or an agreement, we agree with the Office of the Solicitor General that the alleged property rights that may have arisen from it are not absolute. All Filipino citizens are entitled, by right, to a balanced and healthful ecology as declared under Section 16,[29] Article II of the Constitution. This right carries with it the correlative duty to refrain from impairing the environment,[30] particularly our diminishing forest resources. To uphold and protect this right is an express policy of the State.[31] The DENR is the instrumentality of the State mandated to actualize this policy. It is "the primary government agency responsible for the conservation, management, development and proper use of the country's environment and natural resources, including those in reservation and watershed areas, and lands of the public domain, as well as the licensing and regulation of all natural resources as may be provided for by law in order to ensure equitable sharing of the benefits derived therefrom for the welfare of the present and future generations of Filipinos."[32] Thus, private rights must yield when they come in conflict with this public policy and common interest. They must give way to the police or regulatory power of the State, in this case through the DENR, to ensure that the terms and conditions of existing laws, rules and regulations, and the IFMA itself are strictly and faithfully complied with. Respondent was not able to overturn by sufficient evidence the presumption of regularity in the performance of official functions of the Evaluation Team when the latter inspected, assessed, and reported the violations respondent committed under DAO No. 97-04 which eventually led to the cancellation of IFMA No. R-9-040. It is worthy to note that petitioner followed regular procedure regarding the assessment of IFMA No. R-9-040. It gave notice of the evaluation on October 22, 1998 to be held within the period October 22-30, 1998. Respondent admitted through the affidavits of its President,[33] Operations Manager,[34] and workers[35] that an Evaluation Team arrived at the IFMA area on October 23, 1998. On October 23, 1998, prior to the actual assessment, a briefing was held on the conduct thereof in the presence of the IFMA representatives. On October 29, 1998, an exit conference with IFMA Operations Manager Inocencio Santiago was held at the CENRO Office, Pagadian City, where the results of the assessment were presented. That day, the DENR officials asked Santiago if he had any questions or comments on the assessment results and on the manner the evaluation was conducted, but the latter replied that he had none. We do not understand why Santiago did not lift a finger or raise an objection to the assessment results, and only much later in his Affidavit executed almost ten months thereafter, or on August 12, 1999, to claim so belatedly that there was no notice given on October 22, 1998, that the Evaluation Team did not actually extensively inspect the IFMA area on October 23, 1998, and that there was no proper exit conference held on October 29, 1998. The same observation applies to respondent's President herself, who instead claimed that she vehemently opposed the appointment of then DENR Secretary Cerilles because he was bent on canceling the IFMA at all costs, prior to the cancellation of IFMA No. R-9-040. elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/46832 12/16