SC can’t compel President to take specific action vs China’s incursion in WPS

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court said it has no power to compel the President to take specific actions against China’s incursions in the West Philippine Sea.

Voting unanimously, the high court dismissed the petition for mandamus filed by Atty. Romeo Esmero “for utter lack of merit.”

Mandamus refers to “a special civil action brought against a tribunal, corporation, board, officer or person unlawfully neglecting the performance of an act which the law specifically requires as a duty resulting from an office, trust or station.”

Esmero asserted in his case that it is the President’s ministerial duty “to defend the national territory which includes the West Philippine Sea as established by the UN Arbitral Tribunal.”

He added that the Philippines should sue China before the International Court of Justice and demand payment for the damages it caused at the Kalayaan Islands.

“Given China’s aggression, the President is not prohibited from (and by implication, should consider) engaging in a defensive war and, in so doing, call upon the people to defend the State against China’s aggression,” he said.

But the high court said Esmero failed to point any law that specifically requires the President to go to the UN or the ICJ to sue China for its incursions.

The Supreme Court’s ruling was promulgated last June 29 but uploaded on its website on Monday, November 22. The decision is penned by Associate Justice Rodil Zalameda.

“Neither has he shown a clear and unmistakable constitutional or statutory provision which prescribes how the President is to respond to any threat (actual or imminent) from another State to our sovereignty or exercise of our sovereign rights,” the high court added.

It further noted that while the President has the duty to defend the country’s sovereignty, “he is free to use his own discretion in this matter, accountable only to his country in his political character and to his own conscience.”

“Ultimately, the decision of how best to address our disputes with China (be it militarily, diplomatically, legally) rests on the political branches of government,” the high court said.

KGA