Short answer. Yes. Section 52 lets a place used on two or more occasions as the site of unlawful drug sale or delivery be declared a public nuisance and abated. The process runs through an administrative board a city or municipality creates by ordinance, after written notice to the owner and a hearing.
What the law says
Any place or premises which have been used on two or more occasions as the site of the unlawful sale or delivery of dangerous drugs may be declared to be a public nuisance, and such nuisance may be abated
RA 9165, Section 52 — Abating Drug-Related Nuisances. Read the full provision →
The two-occasion threshold
The section applies to any place or premises which have been used on two or more occasions as the site of the unlawful sale or delivery of dangerous drugs, which may be declared to be a public nuisance, and such nuisance may be abated. Two things stand out. The premises must have been used repeatedly — a single incident does not reach the threshold, which is set at two or more occasions. And "place or premises" is broad enough to include a private house, not only a commercial venue. What the section targets is a pattern of the property being used as the venue for dealing.
The abatement procedure
The section lays out its own process. A city or municipality may, by ordinance, create an administrative board to hear complaints about such nuisances. A complaint may then be brought before that board by any employee, officer or resident of the locality, after giving the owner not less than three days' written notice at their last known address. At the hearing the board may consider any evidence, including evidence of the general reputation of the place, and the owner is entitled to present a defence before the board decides whether to declare the premises a public nuisance.
It targets the property, with due process for the owner
This is an administrative abatement of a nuisance, and it is separate from any criminal prosecution of the people who deal there. The section is careful to protect the owner: notice, a hearing, and an express opportunity to present evidence in defence — for instance that the owner neither knew of nor could control the use. The remedy is directed at stopping the property from being used, not at establishing the owner's guilt of a drug offence. The two questions — the state of the premises and the criminal liability of the dealers — are decided in different forums.
What it takes to use this, and next steps
Because the process depends on a local ordinance and a constituted board, the first practical question is whether the particular city or municipality has actually set one up. The complaint, its written notice to the owner, and evidence of the repeated use are what the board acts on. A resident troubled by such a property should confirm the local procedure before filing, while an owner served with a complaint should take advice on the defence in good time, since the hearing is the moment the owner's evidence has to be ready rather than afterward.