04/02/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly [197] R.A. 7942. [198] Section 56, R.A. 8371. SEPARATE OPINION MENDOZA, J.: This suit was instituted to determine the constitutionality of certain provisions of R.A. No. 8371, otherwise known as the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act. Petitioners do not complain of any injury as a result of the application of the statute to them. They assert a right to seek an adjudication of constitutional questions as citizens and taxpayers, upon the plea that the questions raised are of "transcendental importance." The judicial power vested in this Court by Art. VIII, §1 extends only to cases and controversies for the determination of such proceedings as are established by law for the protection or enforcement of rights, or the prevention, redress or punishment of wrongs.[1] In this case, the purpose of the suit is not to enforce a property right of petitioners against the government and other respondents or to demand compensation for injuries suffered by them as a result of the enforcement of the law, but only to settle what they believe to be the doubtful character of the law in question. Any judgment that we render in this case will thus not conclude or bind real parties in the future, when actual litigation will bring to the Court the question of the constitutionality of such legislation. Such judgment cannot be executed as it amounts to no more than an expression of opinion upon the validity of the provisions of the law in question.[2] I do not conceive it to be the function of this Court under Art. VIII, §1 of the Constitution to determine in the abstract whether or not there has been a grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of the legislative and executive departments in enacting the IPRA. Our jurisdiction is confined to cases or controversies. No one reading Art. VIII, §5 can fail to note that, in enumerating the matters placed in the keeping of this Court, it uniformly begins with the phrase "all cases. . . ." The statement that the judicial power includes the duty to determine whether there has been a grave abuse of discretion was inserted in Art. VIII, §1 not really to give the judiciary a roving commission to right any wrong it perceives but to preclude courts from invoking the political question doctrine in order to evade the decision of certain cases even where violations of civil liberties are alleged. The statement is based on the ruling of the Court in Lansang v. Garcia,[3] in which this Court, adopting the submission of the Solicitor General, formulated the following elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/36882 130/148