Decision 20 G.R. No. 215988 5) The certification against forum shopping must be signed by all the plaintiffs or petitioners in a case; otherwise, those who did not sign will be dropped as parties to the case. Under reasonable or justifiable circumstances, however, as when all the plaintiffs or petitioners share a common interest and invoke a common cause of action or defense, the signature of only one of them in the certification against forum shopping substantially complies with the Rule. 6) Finally, the certification against forum shopping must be executed by the party-pleader, not by his counsel. If, however, for reasonable or justifiable reasons, the party-pleader is unable to sign, he must execute a Special Power of Attorney designating his counsel of record to sign on his behalf. 96 (Citations omitted) Here, there were around 200 petitioners in the two (2) environmental cases on appeal before this Court; yet, only 30 petitioners signed the Verification and Certification Against Forum Shopping. However, contrary to private respondents SM Prime Holdings, Inc. and Shopping Center Management Corporation's assertions, the failure of all petitioners to sign the document is not a sufficient ground for the Petition's outright dismissal. Jurisprudence confirms that petitioners substantially complied with the verification requirement. The 30 signatories provided the guarantee that: ( 1) they had ample knowledge as to the truth of the allegations in the Petition; and (2) the Petition was made in good faith. For the certification against forum shopping, Altres stated the general rule that non-signing petitioners will be dropped as parties to the case. Nonetheless, there is an exception: when all petitioners share a commc : interest, the signature of one (1) petitioner in the certification against forum shopping is enough to satisfy the substantial compliance rule. 97 Here, petitioners all share a common interest, which is to declare the cutting or earth-balling of the trees affected by the Expansion Project illegal. Hence, the signature of 30 petitioners to the certification against forum shopping amounts to substantial compliance with the requirement under Rule 45 of the Rules of Court. II It is well-established that a review of appeals filed before this Comi is 98 "not a matter of right, but of sound judicial discretion[.]" The Rules of Court requires that only questions of law should be raised in petitions filed 96 97 Id. at 261-262. Id. at 262. 98 RULES OF COURT, Rule 45, sec. 6. f