The hoops. The news sites abs-cbnnews.com and newsbreak.com.ph reported yesterday that, according to their sources, the Supreme Court is “poised to dismiss” the petitions questioning the constitutionality of the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain between the government and the MILF.
There are hoops that a party challenging the constitutionality of a law or an act has to jump through before the Supreme Court decides to pass upon such issue, BUT in the past, in certain cases, the Supreme Court has waived those prerequisites. In other words, this case could have gone either way, that is, it is arguable either way, that is, there are enough cases supporting either argument. (If there’s time this blog can enumerate what those cases are; the parties to the petition can do the research for their MR, if the Newsbreak report is true; that is, if these cases weren’t pointed out earlier in the proceeding.)
These hoops have been raised here as early as August 7, the first to raise it): “ripeness for adjudication”. Here’s the link The Impending Judicial Review of the GRP-MILF MOA on Ancestral Domain: Requirements
hate to say “i told you so” and won’t, because, to be fair, there have been cases in the past when the Supreme Court had allowed a party to make the challenge, and as i said, (ang kulit ko), the petition could go / could have gone either way, ample cases in both direction.
(oops have errands that need to be done before government offices close at 5pm. Will be back.)
In fact, such a dismissal is the least intrusive to any peace process, or to all the peace talks and backchanelling going on right now between the GRP and the MILF, if any; or the GRP and the NDF, if any: such a decision does not yet traverse the issue of jurisdiction, that is, whether the issue is a political question or a justiciable issue; and allows the parties to learn their lessons and apply these to continue working for a negotiated political settlement of the war.
It was a costly lesson, paid in blood by families of those killed, and those displaced. As of this writing, there are still half a million internally displaced persons in the areas of conflict.
