Supreme Court rejects request for free massive evidence

MANILA – In another outright dismissal, the Supreme Court rejected a request from a group of health advocates urging the Philippine government to conduct mass free tests for the coronavirus.

In a resolution dated September 1 but received by the petitioners only on Tuesday, the SC en banc denied the petition for mandamus presented by the Urgent Citizen Response to End COVID-19 (CURE COVID-19) led by its spokesperson, the former Secretary of Social Welfare Judy. Taguiwalo “because the petitioners did not demonstrate that they have the right to the issuance of a court order.”

A mandamus petition seeks to order a court, corporation, board, officer, or person to perform an illegally careless duty.

According to the court, this will only be the appropriate remedy when “the law prescribes and defines the duty to be fulfilled with such precision and certainty that it leaves nothing to the exercise of discretion or judgment.

“The job of the Court is to say what the law is, not to dictate how another branch of government should do its job,” the SC said in its resolution.

“Without a demonstration that an executive branch official failed to fulfill a mandatory and non-discretionary duty, the courts have no authority to issue a court order, no matter how serious the emergency is,” he added.

SC also said that the petitioners did not exhaust other remedies since they could have turned to other government agencies such as Health, Interior, and other departments, including the Office of the President.

WHAT THE PETITIONERS WANT

The petitioners had based their petition on section 15 of article II of the Constitution, which requires the State to protect and promote the right to health of its people and on section 11 of article XII on the duty of the State to ensure health. of people.

In their petition filed on July 3, the petitioners claimed that the government’s delayed and insufficient response to the coronavirus pandemic has violated their right to health.

They questioned the Department of Health’s implementation of an “expanded targeted test” that purportedly covers suspected cases, people with a relevant history of travel and exposure to COVID-19 cases, and healthcare workers with possible exposure.

But DOH’s “multi-level prioritization,” they said, left many suspected and probable cases, whether patients or healthcare workers, untested or untreated.

They also claimed that contact tracing is delayed and insufficient and accused the government of providing data “late, incomplete, and worse, completely misleading.”

LEONEN DISSENT

SC Associate Justice Marvic Leonen disagreed, saying that the constitutional provisions on which the petitioners rely have been declared self-enforceable by the Supreme Court in a 2014 ruling.

By declaring certain provisions of the Reproductive Health Act unconstitutional, the Supreme Court in Imbong v. Ochoa said that the provisions on the right to health are self-enforcing, meaning they do not require a law before they can be implemented.

Leonen noted the mandate of the Department of Health, as well as the obligations under Republic Law 11332 or the Mandatory Notification of Reportable Diseases and Health Events of Public Concern Law and the obligations of the Philippine government under the treaty to follow the protocols of the World Health Organization.

“The obligations of the Department of Health established by law and the International Health Regulations are the same as those posed by the petitioners in this case. Without an effective response system that complies with the recommendations of the World Health Organization, the petitioners allege that the respondents deny them their right to health, ”she said.

It added that the petitioners’ request for “accurate and timely” information on the COVID-19 situation involves matters of public interest or of public interest.

At a minimum, Leonen said, the defendants should have been asked to comment on the petition, following their own internal rules that the CS must adjudicate cases through a decision if the ruling will have “significant doctrinal value; solve novel problems; or impact on the social, political and economic life of the nation ”.

“A ruling on these issues will have a significant impact on the social, political and economic life of the nation. That alone should have led this Court to at least require the defendants to submit a comment without necessarily giving due course to the Petition. A comment would have given a fuller exposition of the constitutional issues raised, this time from the point of view of the respondents, ”he said.

The defendants in the petition were named Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana as head of the National Working Group on COVID-19, Sec. Carlito Gálvez as the main executor of the National Action Plan against COVID-19 , Secretary of the Interior Eduardo Año as vice president of the Inter-Institutional Working Group (IATF) and members of the IATF Sec. Arthur Tugade, Wendel Avisado, cabinet secretary Karlo Nograles and Secretary of Labor Silvestre Bello III.

This is the fifth time in recent months that the CV outright rejects a petition submitted to it, without the respondents commenting.

Previously, he dismissed pleas that sought to force the Office of the President to release President Duterte’s health records, as well as defy the Bayanihan to the Healing as One Act and the quarantine measures the government implemented.

He also discarded 2 petitions submitted by attorney Lorenzo Gadon, the first that sought to prevent the National Telecommunications Commission from issuing a provisional authority to ABS-CBN and his latest offer to question the name of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in honor of Ninoy Aquino, from 33 years. after the enactment of the law.

NUPL REACTS

In reaction to the ruling, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers-NCR said: “The Resolution frustrates the hopes that our inept and negligent government will be forced to fulfill its constitutional duty to protect and respect the rights of the people to the health and information. For the half year that we have been in quarantine, we have not seen significant improvements in mass testing, contract tracing and isolation. “

“Confirmed COVID-19 cases are increasing once again, while our medical leaders and our resources continue to be depleted. The government does not count on itself and what it can do to stop the health crisis once and for all, but on vaccines against the coronavirus from other countries that have not yet arrived, ”he added.

The Palace had previously downplayed the request saying there is a COVID-19 testing program.