Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
*
G.R. No. 101083. July 30, 1993.
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* EN BANC.
793
794
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795
for the country.—I vote to grant the Petition for Certiorari because
the protection of the environment, including the forest cover of
our territory, is of extreme importance for the country.
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797
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5 Id., 74.
798
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“CAUSE OF ACTION
799
800
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6 Rollo, 70-73.
7 Annex “B” of Petition; Id., 43-44.
801
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802
xxx
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804
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“SEC. 16. The State shall protect and advance the right of the
people to a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the
rhythm and harmony of nature.”
“SEC. 15. The State shall protect and promote the right to health
of the people and instill health consciousness among them.”
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805
not under the Bill of Rights, it does not follow that it is less
important than any of the civil and political rights
enumerated in the latter. Such a right belongs to a
different category of rights altogether for it concerns
nothing less than self-preservation and self-perpetuation—
aptly and fittingly stressed by the petitioners—the
advancement of which may even be said to predate all
governments and constitutions. As a matter of fact, these
basic rights need not even be written in the Constitution
for they are assumed to exist from the inception of
humankind. If they are now explicitly mentioned in the
fundamental charter, it is because of the well-founded fear
of its framers that unless the rights to a balanced and
healthful ecology and to health are mandated as state
policies by the Constitution itself, thereby highlighting
their continuing importance and imposing upon the state a
solemn obligation to preserve the first and protect and
advance the second, the day would not be too far when all
else would be lost not only for the present generation, but
also for those to come—generations which stand to inherit
nothing but parched earth incapable of sustaining life.
The right to a balanced and healthful ecology carries
with it the correlative duty to refrain from impairing the
environment. During the debates on this right in one of the
plenary sessions of the 1986 Constitutional Commission,
the following exchange transpired between Commissioner
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“MR. VILLACORTA:
Does this section mandate the State to provide sanctions
against all forms of pollution—air, water and noise
pollution?
MR. AZCUNA:
Yes, Madam President. The right to healthful (sic)
environment necessarily carries with it the correlative
duty of not impairing the same and, therefore, sanctions
may be prov
12
ided for impairment of environmental
balance.”
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806
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13 For instance, the Preamble and Article XII on the National Economy
and Patrimony.
14 The Reorganization Act of the Department of Environment and
Natural Resources.
15 E.O. No. 292.
807
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16 Section 1.
17 Section 2.
18 Ma-ao Sugar Central Co. vs. Barrios, 79 Phil. 666 [1947]; Community
Investment and Finance Corp. vs. Garcia, 88 Phil. 215 [1951]; Remitere
vs. Vda. de Yulo, 16 SCRA 251 [1966]; Caseñas vs. Rosales, 19 SCRA 462
[1967]; Virata vs. Sandiganbayan, 202 SCRA 680 [1991]; Madrona vs.
Rosal, 204 SCRA 1 [1991].
19 Section 1(q), Rule 16, Revised Rules of Court.
809
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20 Adamos vs. J.M. Tuason and Co., Inc. 25 SCRA 529 [1968]; Virata vs.
Sandiganbayan, supra; Madrona vs. Rosal, supra.
21 39 SCRA 473, 479 [1971].
810
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“In the case now before us, the jurisdictional objection becomes
even less tenable and decisive. The reason is that, even if we were
to assume that the issue presented before us was political in
nature, we would still not be precluded from resolving it under
the expanded jurisdiction conferred upon us that now covers, in
proper cases, even the political question. Article VII, Section 1, of
the Constitution clearly provides: x x x.”
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811
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24 Rollo, 44.
25 125 SCRA 302, 325 [1983].
812
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“SEC. 10.
27
No law impairing, the obligation of contracts shall be
passed.”
cannot be invoked.
In the second place, even if it is to be assumed that the
same are contracts, the instant case does not involve a law
or even an executive issuance declaring the cancellation or
modification of existing timber licenses. Hence, the non-
impairment clause cannot as yet be invoked. Nevertheless,
granting further that a law has actually been passed
mandating cancellations or modifications, the same cannot
still be stigmatized as a violation of the
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813
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814
815
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“Section 1. x x x
Judicial power includes the duty of the courts of justice to
settle actual controversies involving rights which are legally
demandable and enforceable, and to determine whether or not
there has been a grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or
excess of jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality
of the Government.” (Emphases supplied)
818
——o0o——
819
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