A denial of the tax-exempt status of NPC, as sought by respondents, would not only be legally untenable and subversive of doctrinal stability but would also lead to disastrous practical consequences. It should be noted that in this case, respondent province has already auctioned off, purchased and caused to be registered in its name the subject real properties of petitioner on which the Agus II Hydroelectric Power Plant Complex is built. Thus, should the FIRB resolutions be deemed void, then the ownership of the auctioned properties including the hydro-electric plant would be legally vested in respondent province. Additionally, other local government entities might even be induced to covet and grab other properties of the NPC in the guise of collecting local taxes. The far-reaching consequence of such eventuality would not be difficult to imagine. Definitely, it would seriously impair the capacity of the National Power Corporation to fulfill its statutory mandate to carry out the "total electrification of the Philippines through the development of power from all sources to meet the needs of industrial development and rural electrification."
In the end, the Supreme Court has the constitutional duty not only of interpreting and applying the law in accordance with prior doctrines but also of protecting society from the improvidence and wantonness wrought by needless upheavals in such interpretations and applications. Interest rei publicae ut finis sit litium.
