04/02/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly the great public interest these cases have generated. We are, after all, a court of law, and not of public opinion. The power of judicial review of this Court is for settling real and existent dispute, it is not for allaying fears or addressing public clamor. In acting on supposed abuses by other branches of government, the Court must be careful that it is not committing abuse itself by ignoring the fundamental principles of constitutional law. The Executive Department has already manifested to this Court, through the Solicitor General, that it will not sign the MOA in its present form or in any other form. It has declared the same intent to the public. For this Court to insist that the issues raised in the instant Petitions cannot be moot for they are still capable of repetition is to totally ignore the assurance given by the Executive Department that it will not enter into any other form of the MOA in the future. The Court cannot doubt the sincerity of the Executive Department on this matter. The Court must accord a co-equal branch of the government nothing less than trust and the presumption of good faith. Moreover, I deem it beyond the power of this Court to enjoin the Executive Department from entering into agreements similar to the MOA in the future, as what petitioners and other opponents of the MOA pray for. Such prayer once again requires this Court to make a definitive ruling on what are mere hypothetical facts. A decree granting the same, without the Court having seen or considered the actual agreement and its terms, would not only be premature, but also too general to make at this point. It will perilously tie the hands of the Executive Department and limit its options in negotiating peace for Mindanao. Upon the Executive Department falls the indisputably difficult responsibility of diffusing the highly volatile situation in Mindanao resulting from the continued clashes between the Philippine military and Muslim rebel groups. In negotiating for peace, the Executive Department should be given enough leeway and should not be prevented from offering solutions which may be beyond what the present Constitution allows, as long as such solutions are agreed upon subject to the amendment of the Constitution by completely legal means. Peace negotiations are never simple. If neither party in such negotiations thinks outside the box, all they would arrive at is a constant impasse. Thus, a counsel for one of the intervenors who assert the unconstitutionality of the MOA[8] had no choice but to agree as follows: ASSOCIATE JUSTICE QUISUMBING: Well, we realize the constitutional constraints of sovereignty, integrity and the like, but isn't there a time that surely will come and the life of our people when they have to transcend even these limitations? DEAN AGABIN: Yes, we have seen it happen in several instances, Your Honor. xxx ASSOCIATE JUSTICE QUISUMBING: And in pursuit of that purpose, the Supreme Court cannot look beyond the horizon and look for more satisfying result? elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/47263 156/203