607 Phil. 334; 106 OG No.
16, 2335 (April 19, 2010)
EN BANC
[ G.R. No. 187883, June 16, 2009 ]
ATTY. OLIVER O. LOZANO AND ATTY. EVANGELINE J.
LOZANO-ENDRIANO, PETITIONERS, VS. SPEAKER
PROSPERO C. NOGRALES, REPRESENTATIVE,
MAJORITY, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
RESPONDENT.
[G.R. NO. 187910]
LOUIS "BAROK" C. BIRAOGO, PETITIONER, VS.
SPEAKER PROSPERO C. NOGRALES, SPEAKER OF THE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, CONGRESS OF THE
PHILIPPINES, RESPONDENT.
RESOLUTION
PUNO, C.J.:
This Court, so long as the fundamentals of republicanism continue to guide it,
shall not shirk its bounden duty to wield its judicial power to settle "actual
controversies involving rights which are legally demandable and enforceable,
and to determine whether or not there has been a grave abuse of discretion
amounting to a lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of any branch or
instrumentality of the government."[1] Be that as it may, no amount of exigency
can make this Court exercise a power where it is not proper.
The two petitions, filed by their respective petitioners in their capacities as
concerned citizens and taxpayers, prayed for the nullification of House
Resolution No. 1109 entitled "A Resolution Calling upon the Members of
Congress to Convene for the Purpose of Considering Proposals to Amend or
Revise the Constitution, Upon a Three-fourths Vote of All the Members of
Congress." In essence, both petitions seek to trigger a justiciable controversy
that would warrant a definitive interpretation by this Court of Section 1, Article
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XVII, which provides for the procedure for amending or revising the
Constitution. Unfortunately, this Court cannot indulge petitioners' supplications.
While some may interpret petitioners' moves as vigilance in preserving the rule
of law, a careful perusal of their petitions would reveal that they cannot hurdle
the bar of justiciability set by this Court before it will assume jurisdiction over
cases involving constitutional disputes.
It is well settled that it is the duty of the judiciary to say what the law is.[2] The
determination of the nature, scope and extent of the powers of government is
the exclusive province of the judiciary, such that any mediation on the part of
the latter for the allocation of constitutional boundaries would amount, not to its
supremacy, but to its mere fulfillment of its "solemn and sacred obligation"
under the Constitution.[3] This Court's power of review may be awesome, but it
is limited to actual cases and controversies dealing with parties having
adversely legal claims, to be exercised after full opportunity of argument by the
parties, and limited further to the constitutional question raised or the very lis
mota presented.[4] The "case-or-controversy" requirement bans this court
from deciding "abstract, hypothetical or contingent questions,"[5] lest the
court give opinions in the nature of advice concerning legislative or
executive action.[6] In the illuminating words of the learned Justice Laurel in
Angara v. Electoral Commission[7]:
Any attempt at abstraction could only lead to dialectics and barren
legal questions and to sterile conclusions unrelated to actualities.
Narrowed as its function is in this manner, the judiciary does not
pass upon questions of wisdom, justice or expediency of legislation.
More than that, courts accord the presumption of constitutionality to
legislative enactments, not only because the legislature is presumed
to abide by the Constitution but also because the judiciary in the
determination of actual cases and controversies must reflect the
wisdom and justice of the people as expressed through their
representatives in the executive and legislative departments of the
government.
An aspect of the "case-or-controversy" requirement is the requisite of
"ripeness." In the United States, courts are centrally concerned with whether a
case involves uncertain contingent future events that may not occur as
anticipated, or indeed may not occur at all.[8] Another approach is the
evaluation of the twofold aspect of ripeness: first, the fitness of the issues for
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judicial decision; and second, the hardship to the parties entailed by
withholding court consideration.[9] In our jurisdiction, the issue of ripeness is
generally treated in terms of actual injury to the plaintiff. Hence, a question is
ripe for adjudication when the act being challenged has had a direct adverse
effect on the individual challenging it.[10] An alternative road to review
similarly taken would be to determine whether an action has already been
accomplished or performed by a branch of government before the courts may
step in.[11]
In the present case, the fitness of petitioners' case for the exercise of
judicial review is grossly lacking. In the first place, petitioners have not
sufficiently proven any adverse injury or hardship from the act complained of.
In the second place, House Resolution No. 1109 only resolved that the House of
Representatives shall convene at a future time for the purpose of proposing
amendments or revisions to the Constitution. No actual convention has yet
transpired and no rules of procedure have yet been adopted. More importantly,
no proposal has yet been made, and hence, no usurpation of power or gross
abuse of discretion has yet taken place. In short, House Resolution No. 1109
involves a quintessential example of an uncertain contingent future event
that may not occur as anticipated, or indeed may not occur at all. The
House has not yet performed a positive act that would warrant an
intervention from this Court.
Tan v. Macapagal presents a similar factual milieu. In said case, petitioners
filed a petition assailing the validity of the Laurel-Langley resolution, which
dealt with the range of authority of the 1971 Constitutional Convention. The
court resolved the issue thus:
More specifically, as long as any proposed amendment is still
unacted on by it, there is no room for the interposition of judicial
oversight. Only after it has made concrete what it intends to submit
for ratification may the appropriate case be instituted. Until then, the
courts are devoid of jurisdiction. That is the command of the
Constitution as interpreted by this Court. Unless and until such a
doctrine loses force by being overruled or a new precedent being
announced, it is controlling. It is implicit in the rule of law.[12]
Yet another requisite rooted in the very nature of judicial power is locus standi
or standing to sue. Thus, generally, a party will be allowed to litigate only when
he can demonstrate that (1) he has personally suffered some actual or threatened
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injury because of the allegedly illegal conduct of the government; (2) the injury
is fairly traceable to the challenged action; and (3) the injury is likely to be
redressed by the remedy being sought.[13] In the cases at bar, petitioners have
not shown the elemental injury in fact that would endow them with the standing
to sue. Locus standi requires a personal stake in the outcome of a controversy
for significant reasons. It assures adverseness and sharpens the presentation
of issues for the illumination of the Court in resolving difficult
constitutional questions.[14] The lack of petitioners' personal stake in this case
is no more evident than in Lozano's three-page petition that is devoid of any
legal or jurisprudential basis.
Neither can the lack of locus standi be cured by the claim of petitioners that
they are instituting the cases at bar as taxpayers and concerned citizens. A
taxpayer's suit requires that the act complained of directly involves the illegal
disbursement of public funds derived from taxation.[15] It is undisputed that
there has been no allocation or disbursement of public funds in this case as
of yet. To be sure, standing as a citizen has been upheld by this Court in cases
where a petitioner is able to craft an issue of transcendental importance or when
paramount public interest is involved.[16] While the Court recognizes the
potential far-reaching implications of the issue at hand, the possible
consequence of House Resolution No. 1109 is yet unrealized and does not
infuse petitioners with locus standi under the "transcendental importance"
doctrine.
The rule on locus standi is not a plain procedural rule but a constitutional
requirement derived from Section 1, Article VIII of the Constitution, which
mandates courts of justice to settle only "actual controversies involving rights
which are legally demandable and enforceable." As stated in Kilosbayan,
Incorporated v. Guingona, Jr.,[17] viz.:
x x x [C]ourts are neither free to decide all kinds of cases dumped
into their laps nor are they free to open their doors to all parties or
entities claiming a grievance. The rationale for this constitutional
requirement of locus standi is by no means trifle. It is intended "to
assure a vigorous adversary presentation of the case, and, perhaps
more importantly to warrant the judiciary's overruling the
determination of a coordinate, democratically elected organ of
government." It thus goes to the very essence of representative
democracies.
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xxxx
A lesser but not insignificant reason for screening the standing of
persons who desire to litigate constitutional issues is economic in
character. Given the sparseness of our resources, the capacity of
courts to render efficient judicial service to our people is severely
limited. For courts to indiscriminately open their doors to all types
of suits and suitors is for them to unduly overburden their dockets,
and ultimately render themselves ineffective dispensers of justice.
To be sure, this is an evil that clearly confronts our judiciary today.
Moreover, while the Court has taken an increasingly liberal approach to
the rule of locus standi, evolving from the stringent requirements of
"personal injury" to the broader "transcendental importance" doctrine,
such liberality is not to be abused. It is not an open invitation for the
ignorant and the ignoble to file petitions that prove nothing but their
cerebral deficit.
In the final scheme, judicial review is effective largely because it is not
available simply at the behest of a partisan faction, but is exercised only to
remedy a particular, concrete injury.[18] When warranted by the presence of
indispensible minimums for judicial review, this Court shall not shun the duty
to resolve the constitutional challenge that may confront it.
IN VIEW WHEREOF, the petitions are dismissed.
SO ORDERED.
Quisumbing, Ynares-Santiago, Carpio, Corona, Velasco, Jr., Nachura,
Leonardo-De Castro, Brion, Peralta, and Bersamin, JJ., concur.
Carpio Morales, J., on official leave.
Chico-Nazario, J., no part.
[1] Article VIII, Section 1, 1987 Constitution.
[2] Marbury v. Madison , 1 Cranch 137, 2L. Ed. 60 [1803].
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[3] Angara v. Electoral Commission, 63 Phil. 139 (1936).
[4] Ibid.
[5] Alabama State Fed. of Labor v. McAdory, 325 U.S. 450 461 (1945).
[6] Muskrat v. United States, 219 U.S. 346, 362 (1911).
[7] Supra, see note 3.
[8] Tribe, American Constitutional Law, 3d ed. 2000, p. 335.
[9] Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner, 387 U.S. 136 (1967).
[10] Guingona, Jr. v. Court of Appeals, 354 Phil. 415, 427-428 (1998).
[11] Francisco, Jr. v. House of Representatives, 460 Phil. 830, 901-902 (2003).
[12] G.R. No. L-34161, February 29, 1972, 43 SCRA 677, 682.
[13] Tolentino v. COMELEC, 465 Phil. 385, 402 (2004).
[14] Kilosbayan, Incorporated v. Morato, G.R. No. 118910, July 17, 1995, 246
SCRA 540.
[15] Pascual v. Secretary of Public Works, 110 Phil. 331 (1960).
[16] Integrated Bar of the Philippines v. Zamora, G.R. No. 141284, August 15,
2000, 338 SCRA 81.
[17] See Dissent of then Associate Justice Reynato S. Puno, G.R. No. 113375,
May 5, 1994, 232 SCRA 110.
[18] Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727, 740-741, n. 16 (1972).
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