04/02/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly - unfortunately does not authorize this Court to render a purely advisory opinion, i.e., one where a determination by this Court will not have any effect in the "real world". A court's decision should not be any broader than is required by the precise facts. Anything remotely resembling an advisory opinion or a gratuitous judicial utterance respecting the meaning of the Constitution must altogether be avoided. [33] At best, the present petitions may be considered to be for declaratory relief, but that remedy regrettably is not within this Court's original jurisdiction, as I have pointed out earlier.[34] Finally, let me clarify that the likelihood that a matter will be repeated does not mean that there will be no meaningful opportunity for judicial review[35] so that an exception to mootness should be recognized. For a case to dodge dismissal for mootness under the "capable of repetition yet evading review" exception, two requisites must be satisfied: (1) the duration of the challenged action must be too short to be fully litigated prior to its cessation or expiration; and (2) there must be reasonable expectation that the same complaining party will be subjected to the same action again.[36] The time constraint that justified Roe v. Wade, to be sure, does not inherently exist under the circumstances of the present petition so that judicial review will be evaded in a future litigation. As this Court has shown in this case, we can respond as fast as the circumstances require. I see nothing that would bar us from making a concrete ruling in the future should the exercise of our judicial power, particularly the exercise of the power of judicial review, be justified. vii. The Right to Information The petitions for mandamus essentially involved the demand for a copy of the MOAAD based on the petitioners' right to information under Section 7, Article III of the 1987 Constitution. In light of the commonly-held view that the mandamus aspect of the petitions is now moot, focus now shifts to the right to consultation (an aspect of the constitutional right to information and as guaranteed under the Indigenous People's Rights Act[37] and the Local Government Code)[38] that the petitioners now capitalize on to secure the declaration of the nullity of the MOA-AD. I note in this regard though that it is not so much the lack of consultations that the petitioners are rallying against, but the possibility under the MOA-AD's terms that they may be deprived of their lands and properties without due process of law (i.e., that the lumads' ancestral domains will be included in and covered by the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity [BJE] without the benefit of prior consultations).[39] Thus, the equation they present to this Court is: lack of consultations = deprivation of property without due process of law. The short and quick answer to this proprietary concern is that the petitioners' claim is premature. With the MOA-AD unsigned, their fears need not materialize. But even with a signed MOA-AD, I do not believe that the immediate deprivation they fear and their due process concerns are valid based alone on the terms of this aborted agreement. Under these terms, the MOA-AD's execution and signing are but parts of a series of acts and agreements; its signing was not be the final act that would render its provisions operative. The MOA-AD itself expressly provides that the mechanisms and modalities for its implementation will still have to be spelled out in elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/47263 130/203