The recent flooding recently caused by the heavy rainfall brought by Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng has caused tremendous damage to life and property. Many businesses have been seriously affected. While some establishments are fortunate to have been covered by insurance, the rest must shoulder their own damage, either because they have no insurance or their policies don't cover losses caused by floods.

Also recently, there are threats to sue the dam operators who were allegedly negligent in releasing water too late and without sufficient warning. This brings to mind the old case against the National Power Corporation (Napocor or NPC), after Typhoon Welming hit Central Luzon in 1967, passing through Napocor's Angat Hydro-electric Project and Dam in Norzagaray, Bulacan. The heavy downpour caused the water in the Angat Dam reservoir to rise perilously to a danger height of 212 meters above sea level. Napocor caused the opening of the sppillway gates to to prevent an overflow of water from the dam.

The Engineering Construction, Inc. (ECI), which had been doing construction work also in Norzagaray, suffered losses to its equipment and properties when the extraordinary large volume of water rushed out of the spillway gates and hit ECI's installations and construction works.

Napocor was found to be negligent because it opened the spillway gates of the Angat Dam only at the height of typhoon "Welming". NPC knew of the coming typhoon at least four days before it actually struck. NPC also knew it was safer to have opened the spillway gates gradually and earlier.  

A typhoon is an act of God, or what is called force majeure, which ordinarily absolves someone from liability. The act of God doctrine, however, strictly requires that the act must be occasioned exclusively by the violence of nature. When the negligence of a person concurs with an act of God in producing a loss, such person is not exempt from liability by showing that the immediate cause of the damage was the act of God. To be exempt from liability for loss because of an act of God, he must be free from any previous negligence or misconduct by which the loss or damage may have been occasioned.

In other words, NPC cannot escape liability because its negligence was the proximate cause of the loss and damage. (Source: National Power Corporation vs. Court of Appeals, G.R. No. L-47379, 16 May 1988)