27
following. . . .” are indicative of this non-restrictive and non-exhaustive
inventory of human rights involving civil and political rights.
2.56. In fact, as shown, the framers of the Constitution hesitated to
define and enumerate human rights involving civil and political rights,
acknowledging that the term is broad and evolving.
i.
The Honorable Commission has the authority to
investigate “environmental rights,” which are
assumed to exist from the inception of
humankind and inextricably linked to the
general concept of human rights.
2.57. The Supreme Court’s pronouncements in Oposa, et al. v.
Factoran, Jr. et al.98 were strongly echoed in the most recent cases of: (a)
Henares, Jr., et al. v. Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory
Board, et al.99; (b) Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, et al. v.
Concerned Residents of Manila Bay, et al.100; and (c) the consolidated cases
of Resident Marine Mammals of the Protected Seascape Tañon Strait, et
al. v. Secretary Angelo Reyes, et al.101 and Central Visayas Fisherfolk
Development Center (FIDEC), et al. v. Secretary Angelo Reyes.102
2.58. In the Rationale to the Rules of Procedure for Environmental
Cases (Administrative Matter [A.M.] No. 09-6-8-SC),103 the Supreme Court
acknowledged that, “[a] growing number of international instruments as well
as national constitutions, domestic legislations and academic literature have
recognized the inextricable link between human rights and
environmental rights.”104 The Supreme Court added that, “[i]t is
significant to note that a fair amount of literature on the origins of
environmental rights documents in parallel that the ‘right to an adequate
environment’ or what is collectively known as ‘environmental rights’
grew out of a human rights framework.”105
2.59. The propriety of this Petition is also supported by the
recognition of the human rights implications of climate change by the UN
Human Rights Council, Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights
98
Oposa, et al. v. Factoran, Jr. et al., G.R. No. 101083, 30 July 1993.
G.R. No. 158290, 23 October 2006.
100
G.R. Nos. 171947-48, 18 December 2008.
101
G.R. No. 180771, 21 April 2015.
102
G.R. No. 181527, 21 April 2015.
103
Available at http://philja.judiciary.gov.ph/assets/files/pdf/learning_materials/A.m.No.09-6-8SC_rationale.pdf, last accessed on 01 January 2017
104
Citations omitted; Emphasis supplied; Rationale to the Rules of Procedure for Environmental Cases, op
cit., p. 50.
105
Rationale to the Rules of Procedure for Environmental Cases, p. 50, available at
http://philja.judiciary.gov.ph/assets/files/pdf/learning_materials/A.m.No.09-6-8-SC_rationale.pdf, last
accessed on 01 January 2017 (Emphasis supplied).
99
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