Text of the provision

Art. 702. The district health officer shall determine whether or not abatement, without judicial proceedings, is the best remedy against a public nuisance.

Civil Code of the Philippines, Republic Act No. 386, approved June 18, 1949, effective August 30, 1950. Reproduced in full; verified verbatim against the LawPhil and ChanRobles official-text renderings.

What this article means

It is the district health officer who determines whether abatement without judicial proceedings is the best remedy against a public nuisance.

Because a public nuisance affects the community rather than a single property owner, the decision on whether to abate it without judicial proceedings is not left to the discretion of the person inconvenienced by it; it is committed instead to the district health officer, who weighs the circumstances and chooses the best course. This differs from a private nuisance, where the affected owner may typically decide for himself whether and how to seek abatement.

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Note. The text of the provision above is reproduced in full from the official enactment (Republic Act No. 386), verified against the LawPhil and ChanRobles renderings. The annotation and commentary around it are the work of Vivas & Nobles Law Office and are general legal information, not legal advice. How a provision applies to a particular situation depends on facts that only a lawyer reviewing your case can assess.