The Supreme Court has rejected the plea of a group of health advocates urging the Philippine government to conduct free mass testing for the coronavirus.

In a resolution dated September 1 but received by petitioners only on Tuesday, the SC en banc denied the petition for mandamus filed by the Citizens Urgent Response to End COVID-19 (CURE COVID-19) led by its spokesperson, former Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo “for the failure of petitioners to show that they are entitled to the issuance of a writ of mandamus.”

A mandamus petition seeks to order a tribunal, corporation, board, officer, or person to perform an unlawfully neglected duty.

According to the court, this will only be the appropriate remedy where “the law prescribes and defines the duty to be performed with such precision and certainty as to leave nothing to the exercise of discretion or judgment.