III. THE PUBLIC TRUST AND FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS OF FILIPINOS REQUIRES THE GOVERNMENT TO PROTECT THE ATMOSPHERE AND CLIMATE SYSTEM ACCORDING TO BEST AVAILABLE SCIENCE AND HOLD CARBON MAJORS LIABLE FOR FUNDING ATMOSPHERIC RECOVERY The Public Trust Doctrine is an ancient legal principle that “speaks to one of the most essential purposes of government: protecting crucial ecology for the continuing survival and welfare of citizens.”20 Under the doctrine, citizen beneficiaries of vital natural resources held in trust by governments have reserved and inalienable rights to “a sustained natural endowment.”21 Many nations around the world, including the Philippines, “embrace the doctrine as a central principle in their legal systems,” and “the overarching position of the public trust in political and legal traditions around the world reflects the character of the doctrine as a fundamental attribute of sovereignty – a constitutive principle that government cannot shed.” 22 Government trustees hold two core fiduciary duties: 1) protect trust resources from damage and substantial impairment, and 2) recover Natural Resource Damages (NRDs) from third parties that damage trust resources.23 The remainder of this section explains how these two duties relate to this Commission’s ongoing investigation of the Carbon Majors and how that investigation should inform the duty of the Philippine government to seek NRDs from the Carbon Majors. A. THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT HAS A SOVEREIGN DUTY AND CONSTITUTIONAL OBLIGATION TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC TRUST RIGHTS AND RESOURCES OF THE FILIPINO PUBLIC The sovereign public trust obligation of the Philippine government is articulated in the 1987 Philippine Constitution (“Constitution”). Under the Constitution, the Filipino people have a right to health, equal protection of the laws, and a “balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of Nature.”24 In the landmark case Oposa v. Factoran, the Philippine Supreme Court interpreted “the right to a balanced and healthful ecology” as “concern[ing] nothing less than self-preservation and self-perpetuation” and that “these basic rights need not even be written in the Constitution for they are assumed to exist from the inception of humankind.” The Court declared that without these basic rights, “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 20 Mary Christina Wood & Gordon Levitt, The Public Trust Doctrine in Environmental Decision Making, [hereinafter Public Trust Doctrine in Environmental Decision Making] Environmental Decision Making, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2 (forthcoming 2016), available at http://law.uoregon.edu/faculty/mwood/publications/. 21 Mary Christina Wood & Dan Galpern, Atmospheric Recovery Litigation: Making the Fossil Fuel Industry Pay to Restore a Viable Climate System, 45 Envtl. L. 259, 272 (2015) [hereinafter Atmospheric Recovery Litigation] available at https://www.ourchildrenstrust.org/s/2015_Wood_Atmospheric-Recovery-Litigation-Making-FossilFuel-Industry-Pay-to-Restore-Viable-Climate.pdf. 22 Wood & Levitt, Public Trust Doctrine in Environmental Decision Making, at 2 (internal citations omitted). 23 Wood & Galpern, Atmospheric Recovery Litigation, at 289-91. 24 See Petition for Writ of Kalikasan and Writ of Continuing Mandamus in re: Segovia, et. al. v. The Climate Change Commission, et. al., 3 (2014), https://www.ourchildrenstrust.org/s/Philippines-Petition.pdf (citing Article II, Section 15 (right to health), Article III, Section 1 (right to equal protection of the laws), and Article II, Section 16 (right to a balanced and healthful ecology) of the 1987 Philippine Constitution). Our Children’s Trust Amicus Curiae Brief 5