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of FLGLA No. 542 on December 31, 2018.[45]
Again, the decision in G.R. No. 145838 brings out the futility of petitioner's
arguments. In no uncertain terms, that decision declared that FLGLA No. 542 was
illegally issued. Therefore, from that illegal issuance only flowed an invalid FLGLA, as
it is axiomatic in our legal system that acts executed against the laws are void,[46]
and that administrative or executive acts, orders and regulations that are contrary to
the laws or the Constitution are invalid.[47] Petitioner has no right or interest to
speak of, because it is also axiomatic that no vested or acquired right can arise from
illegal acts or those that infringe upon the rights of others.[48]
Petitioner's proposition that despite the lengthy litigation that culminated in the
invalidation of FLGLA No. 542, he still has the "residual right" to enjoy use of the
land until December 31, 2018 is absolutely unacceptable. His stance invites anomaly
at best, or ridicule at worst, for it asks this Court to render useless its own final
decision in G.R. No. 145838. It also solicits disrespect of all judicial decisions and
processes. Instead of ending the litigation, it mocks the painstaking process
undertaken by the courts and administrative agencies to arrive at the decision in
that case. Petitioner's alleged "residual right" has no legal basis and contradicts his
admission that FLGLA No. 542 has been declared invalid by the Court in its decision
in G.R. No. 145838. Petitioner has had no residue of any right and no entitlement to
the land, from the very beginning.
Petitioner's concern over his alleged rights under the IPRA have all been addressed
in G.R. No. 145838. The IPRA was enacted on October 29, 1997. The decision in
G.R. No. 145838 was promulgated on July 20, 2001. On that later date, the Court
was already aware of IPRA; and when it rendered the decision, it could have
expressly declared that petitioner had residual rights under that law if such was the
case.[49] The Court applied P.D. No. 410, the law in effect before the IPRA, in finding
that FLGLA No. 542 was illegal. This finally disposes of petitioner's claim that he has
rights under the IPRA.
In fact, the Court sees petitioner's filing of the present petition as outright forumshopping, as it seeks to revisit what has become a final and executory decision. As
explained in earlier cases, the hallmarks of forum- shopping are:
Forum-shopping exists where the elements of litis pendentia are present,
and where a final judgment in one case will amount to res judicata in the
other. Thus, there is forum- shopping when, between an action pending
before this Court and another one, there exist: "a) identity of parties, or
at least such parties as represent the same interests in both actions, b)
identity of rights asserted and relief prayed for, the relief being founded
on the same facts, and c) the identity of the two preceding particulars is
such that any judgment rendered in the other action, will, regardless of
which party is successful amount to res judicata in the action under
consideration; said requisites also constitutive of the requisites for auter
action pendant or lis pendens." Another case elucidates the consequence
of forum-shopping: "[W]here a litigant sues the same party against whom
another action or actions for the alleged violation of the same right and
the enforcement of the same relief is/are still pending, the defense of litis
pendentia in one case is a bar to the others; and, a final judgment in one
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