The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) has urged the Supreme Court (SC) to dismiss for lack of merit the petitions seeking to nullify the recently enacted Republic Act (RA) No. 10963 or the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law.
The 74-page comment Solicitor-General Jose C. Calida disclosed to media was a response to the separate petitions for certiorari by consumer watchdog group Laban Konsyumer Inc. and a coalition composed of representatives Antonio Tinio, Carlos Isagana Zarate, and Ariel Ka-Ayik Casilao which, according to the comment, “(claimed) that grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction attended the passage of the TRAIN law.”
The OSG, however, argued that “the petitions should be dismissed outright as they suffer from procedural infirmities,” such as “improperly (availing) of a special civil action for certiorari”, “(violating) the principle of hierarchy of courts”, and for “(failing) to show an actual case or controversy calling for the exercise of judicial power,” among others.
They also claimed that “the TRAIN Law was validly passed by Congress and signed into law by the President.”
Aside from dismissing the case, the OSG also urged the court to “deny the application for issuance of a temporary restraining order, writ or preliminary injunction, and/or status quo ante order,” the petitions requested. — Dane Angelo M. Enerio

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