12 IV. History of the Climate Inquiry and Conduct of the Public Hearings On 22 September 2015, Petitioners filed their Petition, urging this Commission to look into the responsibility of the world’s largest investor-owned fossil fuel and cement producers for human rights violations resulting from the impacts of climate change. On 10 December 2015, the Commission declared that it would conduct a national inquiry to look into the allegations in the Petition. For this purpose, the Commission constituted an Inquiry Panel composed of Commissioner Roberto Eugenio T. Cadiz, as Chair, former CHRP Chairperson Jose Luis Martin Gascon, Commissioner Karen S. Gomez-Dumpit, Commissioner Gwendolyn Ll. PimentelGana, and now CHRP Chairperson Leah C. Tanodra-Armamento, as members. Dr. Peter William Walpole, S.J. joined the panel as its independent expert. The Inquiry was conducted in two parts: the first part, consisting of a multi-disciplinary consultative process, and the second, consisting of public hearings. In addition to the amici briefs and expert testimonies proffered during the Inquiry, the Commission took administrative notice21 of the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). 21 Commission on Human Rights, Guidelines and Procedures in the Investigation and Monitoring of Human Rights Violations and Abuses, and the Provision of CHR Assistance, rule 7, § 22 (2012) (This Section provides that, “Applicability of the Rules of Court.—In all matters of procedure not covered by the foregoing rules, the provisions of the Revised Rules of Court shall apply in a suppletory character.”) & 2019 Amendments to the 1989 Revised Rules on Evidence, rule 129, §§ 1-2. (Matters of Judicial Notice is provided for under Section 1 or “Judicial notice, when mandatory.—A court shall take judicial notice, without the introduction of evidence, of the existence and territorial extent of states, their political history, forms of government and symbols of nationality, the law of nations, the admiralty and maritime courts of the world and their seals, the political constitution and history of the Philippines, official acts of the legislative, executive and judicial departments of the National Government of the Philippines, the laws of nature, the measure of time, and the geographical divisions. (1a)”) and is further provided in Section 2 or “Judicial notice, when discretionary. —A court may take judicial notice of matters which are of public knowledge, or are capable of unquestionable demonstration, or ought to be known to judges because of their judicial functions. (1a)”).