04/02/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly exercise of judicial discretion militates against resolving the academic issues, as petitioners want this Court to do.This is especially true where, as will be further discussed, the legal issues raised cannot be resolved without previously establishing the factual basis or antecedents. Judicial power presupposes actual controversies, the very antithesisof mootness.In the absence of actual justiciable controversies or disputes, the Court generally opts to refrain from deciding moot issues.Where there is no more live subject of controversy, the Court ceases to have a reason to render any ruling or make any pronouncement. Kapag wala nang buhay na kaso, wala nang dahilan para magdesisyon ang Husgado.[6] The live controversy relied upon by the petitions was the looming accession by the Philippine government to the MOA-AD, through a formal signing ceremony that was to be held at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 5 August 2008. This ceremony was prevented when the Court issued a Temporary Restraining Order on 4 August 2008, yet even after the TRO, it appeared that the Government then was still inclined to sign the MOA-AD after the legal obstacles had been cleared. However, on 1 September 2008, the Government through the Office of the Solicitor General, filed a Compliance, manifesting the pronouncement of Executive Secretary Ermita that " [n]o matter what the Supreme Court ultimately decides[,] the government will not sign the MOA." This declared intent was repeated in a Manifestation dated 4 September 2008, and verbally reiterated during the oral arguments before this Court. In addition, the President herself publicly declared, as recently as on 2 October 2008, that regardless of the ruling of the Supreme Court on these petitions, her government will not sign the MOA-AD, "in the light of the recent violent incidents committed by MILF lawless groups."[7] Clearly following Suplico the Court has no choice but to take mandatory judicial notice of the fact that the Government will not sign or accede to the MOA-AD and on this basis dismiss to the petitions herein. Thus, the Court is left with petitions that seek to enjoin the Government from performing an act which the latter had already avowed not to do. There is no longer a live case or controversy over which this Court has jurisdiction. Whatever live case there may have been at the time the petitions were filed have since become extinct. Admittedly, there are exceptions to the moot and academic principle. The fact that these exceptions are oft-discussed and applied in our body of jurisprudence reflects an unbalanced impression, for most petitions which are rendered moot and academic are usually dismissed by way of unsigned or minute resolutions which are not published in the Philippine Reports or the Supreme Court Reports Annotated. Still, the moot and academic principle remains a highly useful and often applied tool for the Court to weed out cases barren of any current dispute. Indeed, even with those exceptions in place, there is no mandatory rule that would compel this Court to exercise jurisdiction over cases which have become academic. For the exceptions to apply, it would be necessary, at bare minimum, to exhibit some practical utilitarian value in granting the writs of prohibition sought. Otherwise, the words of the Court would be an empty exercise of rhetoric that may please some ears, but would not have any meaningful legal value. elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/47263 140/203