Gonzales vs Echanova (9 SCRA 230)

FACTS:

Respondent executive secretary authorized importation of 67,000 tons of foreign rice to be purchased from private sources. Ramon A. Gonzales, a rice planter and president of Iloilo Palay and Corn Planters Assoc. filed and averring that in making or attempting to make importation of foreign rice are acting without jurisdiction or in excess of jurisdiction because RA 2207, explicitly prohibits the importation of rice and corn by Rice and Corn Administration or any government agency.

ISSUE:
Whether an international agreement may be invalidated by our courts.

HELD:

The power of judicial review is vested with the supreme court in consonance to section 2 art. VIII of the constitution. The alleged consummation of the contracts with Vietnam and Burma does not render this case academic. RA 2207 enjoins our government not from entering contracts for the purchase of rice, but from entering rice, except under conditions prescribed in said act.

A judicial declaration of illegality of the proposed importation would not compel our government to default in the performance of such obligations as it mat have contracted with the sellers of rice in question because aside from the fact that said obligations may be complied without importing the said commodity into the Philippines the proposed importation may still be legalized by complying with the provisions of the aforementioned law.