NATURE

Petition for certiorari of decision of CA

FACTS
- Cutaran et.al. assails the validity of DENR Special Order31, Special Order 25, and Department
Administrative Order 2 for being issued without prior legislative authority.
- Special Order (SO) 31 (1990): Creation of a Special Task force on acceptance, identification, evaluation
and delineation of ancestral land claims in the Cordillera Administrative Region- Special Order (SO) 25:
Creation of Special Task Forces provincial and community environment and natural sources offices for
the identification, delineation and recognition of ancestral land claims nationwide
- DAO 2: Implementing Rules and Guidelines of Special Order no. 25 The same year SO 31 was issued,
relatives of petitioners filed separate applications for Certificate of Ancestral Land Claim (CALC) for the
land they occupy inside the Camp John Hay Reservation.
-These petitions were denied. Also pursuant to the SOs, the heirs of Apeg Carantes filed application for
CALC for some portions of land in the Camp John Hay Reservation, overlapping some of the land
occupied by the petitioners. The petitioners contend that if not for the respondents timely resistance to
the Orders, the petitioners would be totally evicted from their land.
- Petitioners filed in the CA petition to enjoin respondents from implementing Orders on ground that
they are void for lack of legal basis. CA ruled that SO31 has no force and effect for preempting legislative
prerogative for it was issued prior to the effectivity of RA7586 (National Integrated Protected Systems),
but it sustained SO25and DAO 2 on the ground that they were issued pursuant to powers delegated to
DENR under RA7586.
- Petitioners now contend that CA erred in upholding the validity of SO25 and DAO 2 and seek to enjoin
the DENR from processing the application of CALC of Heirs of Carantes.
ISSUE
WON SO 25 and DAO 2 are valid
HELD
Not a justiciable controversy
Ratio
The petition was prematurely filed. There is yet no justiciable controversy for the court to resolve. The
adverse legal interests involved are the competing claims of the petitioners and heirs of Carantes
topossess a common piece of land. Since the CALC application of the Heirs of Carantes has not yet been
granted or issued, and which the DENR may or may not grant, there is yet no actual or imminent
violation of petitioners asserted right to possess the disputed land.

- Definition of justiciable controversy: a definite and concrete dispute touching on the legal relations of
parties having adverse legal interests which may be resolved by a court of law through the application of
a law.
- Subject to certain well-defined exceptions, the courts will not touch an issue involving the validity of a
law unless there has been a governmental act accomplished or performed that has a direct adverse
effect on the legal right of the person contesting its validity.
- This Court cannot rule on the basis of petitioners speculation that the DENR will approve the
application of the heirs of Carantes. There must be an actual governmental act which directly causes or
will imminently cause injury to the alleged legal right of the petitioner to possess the land before the
jurisdiction of this Court may be invoked. There is no showing that the petitioners were being evicted
from the land by the heirs of Carantes under orders from the DENR.