The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) has urged the Supreme Court to dismiss outright the petition compelling President Marcos to undergo a drug test and medical examination and disclose the results to the public.
In a 23-page comment dated May 15, the OSG told the high tribunal that the petition for mandamus filed by former House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, along with Virgilio Garcia, Juan Raña, and Raymundo Junia, “violates the President’s absolute immunity from suit.”
The state counsel also argued that the petitioners have “no legal standing” to file such a petition, and thus must be thrown out.
“The petition has similarly not shown any legal or constitutional basis to compel the President to submit to any medical examination and publish its results, nor demonstrated any factual basis to assert any serious illness on the part of the President. Stripped clean of bombast and rhetoric, this Petition is nothing more than a fishing expedition,” said the OSG, headed by Solicitor General Darlene Berberabe.
The petition, filed on April 15, forces Marcos to undergo a medical examination, including a hair follicle drug test, so the public would know the “true” state of his health.