04/02/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly principle is "not a magical formula that automatically dissuades courts in resolving cases," so also should the exceptions not be considered magical formulas that should apply when the Court is minded to conduct a review despite the mootness of a petition. In other words, where an issue is moot on its face, the application of any of the exceptions should be subjected to a strict test because it is a deviation from the general rule. The Court should carefully test the exceptions to be applied from the perspectives both of legality and practical effects, and show by these standards that the issue absolutely requires to be resolved. I do not believe that the exceptions were so tested and considered under the ponencia. c. The Ponencia's Positions Refuted i. Mootness and this Court's TRO A first point the ponencia stresses with preeminence in its discussion of the mootness issue is the observation that "the signing of the MOA-AD did not push through due to the court's issuance of a Temporary Restraining Order." The implication, it seems, is that the intervening events subsequent to the filing of the petition and the issuance of the temporary restraining order (TRO) - specifically, the respondents' commitment that the MOA-AD shall not be signed in its present form or in any other form,[14] and the President's act of dissolving the GRP negotiating panel[15] - had no effect on the petitions because the signing of the MOA-AD had by then been stopped by our TRO. I find this a disturbing implication as the petitions for prohibition presented live controversies up to and beyond the issuance of this Court's TRO; they were rendered moot only by the above mentioned intervening events. By these intervening and unequivocal acts, the respondents effectively acknowledged that the MOA-AD should indeed not be signed as demanded by the petition. Thus, the TRO from this Court only immediately ensured that the MOA-AD would not be signed until this Court had spoken on the constitutional and statutory grounds cited by the petitions, but it was the respondents' acts that removed from controversy the issue of whether the MOA-AD should be signed or not. In simpler terms, after the respondents declared that the MOA-AD would not be signed, there was nothing left to prohibit and no rights on the part the petitioners continued to be at risk of violation by the MOA-AD. Thus, further discussion of the constitutionality of the MOA-AD now serves no useful purpose; as the discussion below will show, there may even be a considerable downside for our national interests if we inject another factor and another actor in the Mindanao conflict by ruling on the unconstitutionality of the MOA-AD. ii. Mootness and Constitutional Implications The ponencia posits as well that the MOA-AD has not been mooted because it has far-reaching constitutional implications and contains a commitment to amend and effect necessary changes to the existing legal framework. The same reason presented above suffices to defuse the ponencia's fear about the adverse constitutional effects the MOA-AD may bring or might have brought: without a signed MOA-AD none of these feared constitutional consequences can arise. From another perspective, what the ponencia appears to fear are the constitutional violations and adverse consequences of a signed and effective MOA-AD. These fears, elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/47263 123/203