Garcillano v. House of Representatives

"‘Legal standing’ or locus standi refers to a personal and substantial interest in a case such that the party
has sustained or will sustain direct injury because of the challenged governmental act x x x," thus,
generally, a party will be allowed to litigate only when:
(1) he can show that he has personally suffered some actual or threatened injury because of the
allegedly illegal conduct of the government;
(2) the injury is fairly traceable to the challenged action; and
(3) the injury is likely to be redressed by a favorable action.
A case becomes moot when its purpose has become stale.
Garcillano v. House of Representatives

G.R. No. 170338, December 23, 2008
Facts:
Tapes ostensibly containing a wiretapped conversation purportedly between the President of the
Philippines (Arroyo) and a high-ranking official of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) surfaced.
The tapes, notoriously referred to as the "Hello Garci" tapes, allegedly contained the President’s
instructions to COMELEC Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano to manipulate in her favor results of
the 2004 presidential elections.
These recordings were to become the subject of heated legislative hearings conducted separately by
committees of both Houses of Congress. Because of such turn of events, petitioner Garcillao a petition
for Prohibition and Injunction, with Prayer for Temporary Restraining Order and/or Writ of
Preliminary Injunction. He prayed that the respondent House Committees be restrained from using
these tape recordings of the "illegally obtained" wiretapped conversations in their committee reports
and for any other purpose. He further implored that the said recordings and any reference thereto be
ordered stricken off the records of the inquiry, and the respondent House Committees directed to
desist from further using the recordings in any of the House proceedings.
Petitioner Garcillano justifies his standing to initiate the petition by alleging that he is the person
alluded to in the "Hello Garci" tapes. Further, he was publicly identified by the members of the
respondent committees as one of the voices in the recordings.
Obviously, therefore, petitioner Garcillano stands to be directly injured by the House committees’ actions
and charges of electoral fraud. The Court recognizes his standing to institute the petition for prohibition.
Issue:
whether or not, petitioner has "alleged such a personal stake in the outcome of the controversy as to
assure that concrete adverseness which sharpens the presentation of issues upon which the court so
largely depends for illumination of difficult constitutional questions."
Held:
YES, the Court cited its ruling in Tolentino v. COMELEC:
"‘[l]egal standing’ or locus standi refers to a personal and substantial interest in a case such that the
party has sustained or will sustain direct injury because of the challenged governmental act x x x,"
thus, generally, a party will be allowed to litigate only when:
(1) he can show that he has personally suffered some actual or threatened injury because of
the allegedly illegal conduct of the government;
(2) the injury is fairly traceable to the challenged action; and
(3) the injury is likely to be redressed by a favorable action.
Obviously, petitioner Garcillano stands to be directly injured by the House committees’ actions and
charges of electoral fraud.
However, the Court DISMISSES Garcilliano’s petition for being moot and academic. Repeatedly
stressed in our prior decisions is the principle that the exercise by this Court of judicial power is
limited to the determination and resolution of actual cases and controversies.
By actual cases, we mean existing conflicts appropriate or ripe for judicial determination, not
conjectural or anticipatory, for otherwise the decision of the Court will amount to an advisory opinion.
The power of judicial inquiry does not extend to hypothetical questions because any attempt at
abstraction could only lead to dialectics and barren legal questions and to sterile conclusions unrelated to
actualities.
Neither will the Court determine a moot question in a case in which no practical relief can be granted. A
case becomes moot when its purpose has become stale. It is unnecessary to indulge in academic
discussion of a case presenting a moot question as a judgment thereon cannot have any practical legal
effect or, in the nature of things, cannot be enforced.
In G.R. No. 170338, petitioner Garcillano implores from the Court, as aforementioned, the issuance of an
injunctive writ to prohibit the respondent House Committees from playing the tape recordings and from
including the same in their committee report. He likewise prays that the said tapes be stricken off the
records of the House proceedings. But the Court notes that the recordings were already played in the
House and heard by its members. There is also the widely publicized fact that the committee reports on
the "Hello Garci" inquiry were completed and submitted to the House in plenary by the respondent
committees. Having been overtaken by these events, the Garcillano petition has to be dismissed for being
moot and academic. After all, prohibition is a preventive remedy to restrain the doing of an act about
to be done, and not intended to provide a remedy for an act already accomplished.

Garcillano v. House of Representatives

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"‘Legal standing’ or locus standi refers to a personal and substantial interest in a case such that the party

A case becomes moot when its purpose has become stale.

Garcillano v. House of Representatives

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