04/02/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly protection of cultural communities as the said provisions are policy statements to guide the legislature in the exercise of their law-making powers and by themselves are not self-executory. The Solicitor-General filed memorandum in behalf of the respondent DENR praying for the affirmance of the appellate court's decision. The respondent argues that the subject DENR special orders were issued pursuant to the powers granted by RA 7586 to the DENR to protect the socio-economic interests of indigenous peoples. The land occupied by the petitioners is within a "protected area" as defined by the said law and is well within the jurisdiction of the DENR. The respondent likewise claims that the petitioners are estopped from contesting the validity of the DENR administrative issuances considering that their relatives applied for certificates of ancestral land claim (CALC) under the said special orders which applications were, however, denied. The petitioners should not be allowed to challenge the same administrative orders which they themselves previously invoked. The respondents do not contest the ruling of the appellate court as regards the nullity of Special Order no. 31, as amended. The sole issue before us concerns the validity of DENR Special Order no. 25, series of 1993 and its implementing rules DAO no. 02. The petitioners' main contention is that the assailed administrative orders were issued beyond the jurisdiction or power of the DENR secretary under the NIPAS Act of 1992. They seek to enjoin the respondents from processing the application for ancestral land claim filed by the heirs of Carantes because if approved, the petitioners may be evicted from the portion of the land they occupy which overlaps the land applied for by the Carantes heirs. From a reading of the records it appears to us that the petition was prematurely filed. Under the undisputed facts there is as yet no justiciable controversy for the court to resolve and the petition should have been dismissed by the appellate court on this ground. We gather from the allegations of the petition and that of the petitioners' memorandum that the alleged application for certificate of ancestral land claim (CALC) filed by the heirs of Carantes under the assailed DENR special orders has not been granted nor the CALC applied for, issued. The DENR is still processing the application of the heirs of Carantes for a certificate of ancestral land claim, which the DENR may or may not grant. It is evident that the adverse legal interests involved in this case are the competing claims of the petitioners and that of the heirs of Carantes to possess a common portion of a piece of land. As the undisputed facts stand there is no justiciable controversy between the petitioners and the respondents as there is no actual or imminent violation of the petitioners' asserted right to possess the land by reason of the implementation of the questioned administrative issuances. A justiciable controversy has been defined as, " a definite and concrete dispute touching on the legal relations of parties having adverse legal interests"[10] which may be resolved by a court of law through the application of a law.[11] Courts have no judicial power to review cases involving political questions and as a rule, will desist from taking cognizance of speculative or hypothetical cases, advisory opinions and in cases that has become moot.[12] Subject to certain well-defined exceptions[13] courts will not touch an issue involving the validity of a law unless elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/50008 3/7