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Decision 18<br />
G.R. Nos. 171396,<br />
171400<br />
171409, 171424, 171483<br />
171485, 171489<br />
I- Moot and Academic Principle<br />
One of the greatest contributions of the American system to this<br />
country is the concept of judicial review enunciated in Marbury v.<br />
Madison. 21 This concept rests on the extraordinary simple foundation --<br />
The Constitution is the supreme law. It was ordained by the<br />
people, the ultimate source of all political authority. It confers limited<br />
powers on the national government. x x x If the government consciously<br />
or unconsciously oversteps these limitations there must be some<br />
authority competent to hold it in control, to thwart its<br />
unconstitutional attempt, and thus to vindicate and preserve inviolate<br />
the will of the people as expressed in the Constitution. This power the<br />
courts exercise. This is the beginning and the end of the theory of<br />
judicial review. 22<br />
But the power of judicial review does not repose upon the courts a<br />
“self-starting capacity.” 23 Courts may exercise such power only when the<br />
following requisites are present: first, there must be an actual case or<br />
controversy; second, petitioners have to raise a question of constitutionality;<br />
third, the constitutional question must be raised at the earliest opportunity;<br />
and fourth, the decision of the constitutional question must be necessary to<br />
the determination of the case itself. 24<br />
Respondents maintain that the first and second requisites are absent,<br />
hence, we shall limit our discussion thereon.<br />
An actual case or controversy involves a conflict of legal right, an<br />
opposite legal claims susceptible of judicial resolution. It is “definite and<br />
concrete, touching the legal relations of parties having adverse legal<br />
interest;” a real and substantial controversy admitting of specific relief. 25<br />
The Solicitor General refutes the existence of such actual case or<br />
21<br />
1 Cranch 137 [1803].<br />
22<br />
Howard L. MacBain, “Some Aspects of Judicial Review,” Bacon Lectures on the Constitution<br />
of the United States (Boston: Boston University Heffernan Press, 1939), pp. 376-77.<br />
23<br />
The Court has no self-starting capacity and must await the action of some litigant so<br />
aggrieved as to have a justiciable case. (Shapiro and Tresolini, American Constitutional Law, Sixth<br />
Edition, 1983, p. 79).<br />
24<br />
Cruz, Philippine Political Law, 2002 Ed., p. 259.<br />
25<br />
Ibid.