women; (2) children; (3) persons with disabilities; (4) those living in extreme poverty; (5)
indigenous peoples; (6) displaced persons; and (7) workers; as well as the right of Filipinos to
development.
While the adjunct rights to health13 and to a balanced and healthful ecology,14 known
collectively as environmental rights, are not listed under the Bill of Rights, they are included in
the subject of this Petition. The exchange between Commissioners Bennagen and Nolledo during
the deliberations of the 1986 Constitutional Convention supports the general idea that
environmental rights are included in the complete concept of human rights.15 Their importance is
explained in Oposa v. Factoran:
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.16
This Petition is therefore within the scope of the Commission’s jurisdiction under Rule 2 of the
Omnibus Rules of Procedure of the CHR, to wit:
Rule 2. Scope of CHR jurisdiction
Section 1. Pursuant to Sections 17 to 19, Article XIII of the 1987
Philippine Constitution, in relation to Executive Order No. 163,
dated 5 May 1987, and relevant international human rights
instruments, the Commission on Human Rights shall take
cognizance of and investigate, on its own or on complaint by
any party, all forms of human rights violations and abuses
involving civil and political rights, to include but not limited to
the following:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
right to life;
right to liberty;
right to security;
right to respect for one’s dignity;
freedom from slavery and involuntary servitude;
13
CONST. art. II, § 15.
CONST. art. II, § 16.
15
Sub-Committee on the Rules of Procedure for Environmental Cases, Rationale to the Rules of Procedure for
Environmental Cases, 59-60, paragraph 3, Apr. 2010.
16
Oposa v. Factoran, Jr., G.R. No. 101083, July 30, 1993, 224 SCRA 792.
14
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