04/02/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly organizations to prosecute actions involving the constitutionality or validity of laws, regulations and rulings. xxxx By way of summary, the following rules may be culled from the cases decided by this Court. Taxpayers, voters, concerned citizens, and legislators may be accorded standing to sue, provided that the following requirements are met: (1) the cases involve constitutional issues; (2) for taxpayers, there must be a claim of illegal disbursement of public funds or that the tax measure is unconstitutional; (3) for voters, there must be a showing of obvious interest in the validity of the election law in question; (4) for concerned citizens, there must be a showing that the issues raised are of transcendental importance which must be settled early; and (5) for legislators, there must be a claim that the official action complained of infringes upon their prerogatives as legislators. The test we have laid down is whether the party has alleged such a personal stake in the outcome of the controversy as to assure that concrete adverseness which sharpens the presentation of issues upon which the court so largely depends for illumination of difficult questions.[19] When an individual sues as a citizen, he must allege that he has been or is about to be subjected to some burdens or penalties by reason of the statute or act complained of.[20] When the issue concerns a public right, it is sufficient that the petitioner is a citizen and has an interest in the execution of the laws.[21] The petitioners and petitioners-in-intervention claim locus standi with their invocation of the transcendental importance of the issues involved and their assertion of public rights to information and to consultation. Considering that the Court has discretion to relax this procedural technicality, and given the liberal attitude it has adopted in a number of earlier case, we acknowledge the legal standing of the petitioners herein. ii. Ripeness for Adjudication A mandatory requirement for the Court's exercise of the power of judicial review is the existence of an actual case or controversy. An actual case or controversy is a conflict of legal rights, an assertion of opposite legal claims which can be resolved on the basis of existing law and jurisprudence.[22] The controversy must be definite and concrete, bearing upon the legal relations of parties who are pitted against each elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/47263 193/203