04/02/2020
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mentioned, was set to be signed last August 5, 2008.
II. Statement of the proceedings
Before the Court is what is perhaps the most contentious "consensus" ever
embodied in an instrument - the MOA-AD which is assailed principally by the present
petitions bearing docket numbers 183591, 183752, 183893, 183951 and 183962.
Commonly impleaded as respondents are the GRP Peace Panel on Ancestral
Domain[7] and the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (PAPP) Hermogenes
Esperon, Jr.
On July 23, 2008, the Province of North Cotabato[8] and Vice-Governor Emmanuel
Piñol filed a petition, docketed as G.R. No. 183591, for Mandamus and Prohibition
with Prayer for the Issuance of Writ of Preliminary Injunction and Temporary
Restraining Order.[9] Invoking the right to information on matters of public concern,
petitioners seek to compel respondents to disclose and furnish them the complete
and official copies of the MOA-AD including its attachments, and to prohibit the
slated signing of the MOA-AD, pending the disclosure of the contents of the MOA-AD
and the holding of a public consultation thereon. Supplementarily, petitioners pray
that the MOA-AD be declared unconstitutional.[10]
This initial petition was followed by another one, docketed as G.R. No. 183752, also
for Mandamus and Prohibition[11] filed by the City of Zamboanga,[12] Mayor Celso
Lobregat, Rep. Ma. Isabelle Climaco and Rep. Erico Basilio Fabian who likewise pray
for similar injunctive reliefs. Petitioners herein moreover pray that the City of
Zamboanga be excluded from the Bangsamoro Homeland and/or Bangsamoro
Juridical Entity and, in the alternative, that the MOA-AD be declared null and void.
By Resolution of August 4, 2008, the Court issued a Temporary Restraining Order
commanding and directing public respondents and their agents to cease and desist
from formally signing the MOA-AD.[13] The Court also required the Solicitor General
to submit to the Court and petitioners the official copy of the final draft of the MOAAD,[14] to which she complied.[15]
Meanwhile, the City of Iligan[16] filed a petition for Injunction and/or Declaratory
Relief, docketed as G.R. No. 183893, praying that respondents be enjoined from
signing the MOA-AD or, if the same had already been signed, from implementing the
same, and that the MOA-AD be declared unconstitutional. Petitioners herein
additionally implead Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita as respondent.
The Province of Zamboanga del Norte,[17] Governor Rolando Yebes, Vice-Governor
Francis Olvis, Rep. Cecilia Jalosjos-Carreon, Rep. Cesar Jalosjos, and the
members[18] of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Zamboanga del Norte filed on
August 15, 2008 a petition for Certiorari, Mandamus and Prohibition,[19] docketed as
G.R. No. 183951. They pray, inter alia, that the MOA-AD be declared null and void
and without operative effect, and that respondents be enjoined from executing the
MOA-AD.
On August 19, 2008, Ernesto Maceda, Jejomar Binay, and Aquilino Pimentel III filed
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