04/02/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly The best example of the "capable of repetition yet evading review" exception to mootness is in its application in Roe v. Wade,[26] the U.S. case where the American Supreme Court categorically ruled on the legal limits of abortion. Given that a fetus has a gestation period of only nine months, the case could not have worked its way through the judicial channels all the way up to the US Supreme Court without the disputed pregnancy being ended by the baby's birth. Despite the birth and the patent mootness of the case, the U.S. Supreme Court opted to fully confront the abortion issue because it was a situation clearly capable of repetition but evading review - the issue would recur and would never stand effective review if the ninemonth gestation period would be the Court's only window for action. In the Philippines, we have applied the "capable of repetition but evading review" exception to at least two recent cases where the Executive similarly backtracked on the course of action it had initially taken. The earlier of these two cases - Sanlakas v. Executive Secretary[27] - involved the failed Oakwood mutiny of July 27, 2003. The President issued Proclamation No. 427 and General Order No. 4 declaring a "state of rebellion" and calling out the armed forces to suppress the rebellion. The President lifted the declaration on August 1, 2003 through Proclamation No. 435. Despite the lifting, the Court took cognizance of the petitions filed based on the experience of May 1, 2001 when a similar "state of rebellion" had been imposed and lifted and where the Court dismissed the petitions filed for their mootness.[28] The Court used the "capable of repetition but evading review" exception "to prevent similar questions from re-emerging ... and to lay to rest the validity of the declaration of a state of rebellion in the exercise of the President's calling out power, the mootness of the petitions notwithstanding." The second case (preeminently cited in the present ponencia) is David v. MacapagalArroyo. The root of this case was Proclamation No. 1017 and General Order No. 5 that the President issued in response to the conspiracy among military officers, leftist insurgents of the New People's Army, and members of the political opposition to oust or assassinate her on or about February 24, 2006. On March 3, 2006, exactly one week after the declaration of a state of emergency, the President lifted the declaration. In taking cognizance of the petitions, the Court justified its move by simply stating that "the respondents' contested actions are capable of repetition." Despite the lack of extended explanation in David v. Macapagal-Arroyo, the Court's actions in both cases are essentially correct because of the history of "emergencies" that had attended the administration of President Macapagal-Arroyo since she assumed office. Thus, by the time of David v. Macapagal-Arroyo, the Court's basis and course of action in these types of cases had already been clearly laid. This kind of history or track record is, unfortunately, not present in the petitions at bar and no effort was ever exerted by the ponencia to explain why the exception should apply. Effectively, the ponencia simply textually lifted the exception from past authorities and superimposed it on the present case without looking at the factual milieu and surrounding circumstances. Thus, it simply assumed that the Executive and the next negotiating panel, or any panel that may be convened later, will merely duplicate the work of the respondent peace panel. elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/47263 128/203