G.R. No.

192986 January 15, 2013

ADVOCATES FOR TRUTH IN LENDING, INC. and EDUARDO B. OLAGUER, Petitioners,

vs.
BANGKO SENTRAL MONETARY BOARD, represented by its Chairman, GOVERNOR ARMANDO M.
TETANGCO, JR., and its incumbent members: JUANITA D. AMATONG, ALFREDO C. ANTONIO,
PETER FA VILA, NELLY F. VILLAFUERTE, IGNACIO R. BUNYE and CESAR V. PURISIMA,
Respondents.

REYES, J.:

Even in public interest cases such as this petition, the Court has generally adopted the "direct injury" test
that the

person who impugns the validity of a statute must have "a personal and substantial interest in the case
such that he

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has sustained, or will sustain direct injury as a result."

While the Court may have shown in recent decisions a certain toughening in its attitude concerning the
question of

legal standing, it has nonetheless always made an exception where the transcendental importance of the
issues has
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been established, notwithstanding the petitioners’ failure to show a direct injury.

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In CREBA v. ERC, the Court set out the following instructive guides as determinants on whether a
matter is of

transcendental importance, namely: (1) the character of the funds or other assets involved in the case; (2)
the

presence of a clear case of disregard of a constitutional or statutory prohibition by the public respondent
agency or

instrumentality of the government; and (3) the lack of any other party with a more direct and specific
interest in the
questions being raised.