POLITICAL QUESTIONS

Political questions – to be decided by the people, the executive or legislative

branch: Political questions refer to those questions which, under the Constitution, are to be
decided by the people in their sovereign capacity, or in regard to which full discretionary
authority has been delegated to the legislative or executive branch of the government. (Belgica
v. Executive Secretary, G.R. No. 208566, November 19, 2013; Vinuya v. Executive Secretary,
G.R. No. 162230, 28 April 2010)

A question is political, and not judicial, if it is a matter which is to be exercised by the people in
their primary political capacity, or that it has been specifically delegated to some other
department or particular officer of the government, with discretionary power to act. (The
Diocese of Bacolod v. Commission on Elections, G.R. No. 205728, January 21, 2015)

Political questions -- dependent upon the wisdom, not the legality, of a particular
measure: Political questions are concerned with issues dependent upon the wisdom, not the
legality, of a particular measure. (Belgica v. Executive Secretary, G.R. No. 208566, November
19, 2013; Vinuya v. Executive Secretary, G.R. No. 162230)

Court may not pass upon questions of wisdom, justice or expediency of a law. It may do so
where an attendant unconstitutionality or grave abuse of discretion results. (Imbong v. Ochoa,
G.R. No. 204819, April 8, 2014)

As they are concerned with questions of policy and issues dependent upon the wisdom, not
legality of a particular measure, political questions used to be beyond the ambit of judicial
review. However, the scope of the political question doctrine has been limited by Section 1 of
Article VIII of the 1987 Constitution when it vested in the judiciary the power to determine
whether or not there has been grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of
jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality of the Government. (Ocampo v.
Enriquez, G.R. No. 225973, November 08, 2016)

Grave abuse of discretion - the issue to be resolved in political questions:

When political questions are involved, the Constitution limits the determination to whether or
not there has been a grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on
the part of the official whose action is being questioned. (The Diocese of Bacolod v.
Commission on Elections, G.R. No. 205728, January 21, 2015)