Short answer. Yes. An agency in general terms comprises only acts of administration even though the agency should authorize a general and unlimited management. Broad or emphatic wording like 'full and unlimited' does not, by itself, expand your agent's authority beyond ordinary administration at all.
What the law says
An agency couched in general terms comprises only acts of administration, even if the principal should state that he withholds no power or that the agent may execute such acts as he may consider appropriate, or even though the agency should authorize a general and unlimited management
Civil Code, Article 1877 — General Terms Cover Only Administration. Read the full provision →
The default rule for a general agency
The very starting point is genuinely narrow, no matter how the agency document itself happens to be phrased: an agency couched in general terms comprises only acts of administration. Administration covers managing and preserving property in the ordinary, everyday course of things — not the more consequential, riskier acts that the law separately requires a special power to actually perform on the principal's behalf.
The rule anticipates exactly the wording you describe
This particular provision does not merely state the general rule — it specifically addresses attempts to broaden it through emphatic language. It applies even if the principal should state that he withholds no power, or that the agent may act as he may consider appropriate, or even though the agency should authorize a general and unlimited management. Phrases like 'full and unlimited' fall squarely and directly within what this specific provision anticipates and effectively neutralizes on its own terms.
Why broad language does not expand the authority
The law treats these particular sweeping phrases as still being ordinary general terms, not as language that converts the agency into something broader. No matter how expansive or emphatic the wording actually sounds, the legal effect remains capped at acts of administration unless the power of attorney genuinely does something different from simply using strong, sweeping general language throughout the document.
What would actually be needed to go beyond administration
Since general wording, however emphatic, keeps the agency confined to administration, authority to perform acts beyond that limit — such as disposing of property outright or undertaking obligations that specifically require a special power — has to come from clear, specific language granting that particular kind of authority, not from vague, generalized assurances scattered throughout the document that the agent's power is somehow full and unlimited in scope.
Cases citing this provision
These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.
- AFP Retirement and Separation Benefits System (Afp-Rsbs) vs. Plastic King Industrial Corp, G.R. No. 231395, June 26, 2023 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Philippine National Bank Binalbagan Branch, Binalbagan, Negros Occidental vs. Antonio Tad-Y, for himself, G.R. No. 214588, September 7, 2022 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Sally Yoshizaki vs. Joy Training Center of Aurora, Inc, G.R. No. 174978, July 31, 2013 — read the decision on LawPhil →