June is environment month. This is because major environmental conferences were held: in June 1972, Stockholm, Sweden (United Nations Conference on the Human Environment); in 1992, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development); in 2002, Johannesburg, South Africa (World Summit on Sustainable Development; and in 2012, again in Rio de Janeiro (United …
Category Archives: Environment
A crossroads for Meralco
Like many electricity consumers of Metro Manila, I am dreading the arrival of our latest bill from the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) bill. We have heard of horror stories of questionably high electricity bills from fellow customers. In some places, service has also been spotty – with households and neighborhoods experiencing repeated instances of power …
Fighting a pandemic and the climate emergency
Co-authored with Joy Reyes. Originally published May 14, 2020 on Rappler.com ‘One has to remember that like pathogens, climate change is not hampered by borders’ Today, we are faced with a global pandemic – COVID-19. In an effort to curb the alarming number of cases related to it and the increase in deaths resulting from …
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Ecological irresponsibility and pandemics
Co-authored with Joy Reyes A pandemic is an outcome of ecological irresponsibility; environmental negligence also aggravates the health, economic, and other impacts of pandemics. This link between environment and pandemics is illustrated in the global crisis we are facing with the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) which has forced governments to close down its borders, companies to …
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Aetas and New Clark City: Trampling on the rights of our first peoples
Co-authored with Joy Reyes Beneath the glitz and glamour of the New Clark City (NCC), one of the venues of the 30th SEA Games hosted by the Philippines, lie an insidious reality – the forcible displacement of the Aetas from their ancestral domain. The 9,450 hectare-development located in Capas, Tarlac broaches on the land over …
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Climate summits in Madrid and Santiago
The 25th Conference of the Parties (COP 25) of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change was meant to take place in Santiago, Chile, from December 2-13, 2019. Unfortunately Chilean President Sebastián Piñera announced at the end of October that, due to the civil unrest taking place in the country, his government would no longer …
The illegal and immoral Kaliwa Dam ECC
Co-authored with Joy Reyes Just a few months after the Philippine government entered into a contract with China for the construction of the P18.7 billion controversial Kaliwa Dam, touted to be the solution for the Metro Manila water shortage, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources through the Environmental Management Bureau released the Environmental Compliance …
Public trust according to Justice Leonen
Justice Ramon Paul Hernando’s ponencia in Maynilad v. DENR, which laid down the Public Trust Doctrine is in, itself, a re-invention. Justice Leonen’s concurrence is more than that, a reboot. Leonen featured public trust not as a mere trustee relationship between State and its citizens—but rather, one akin to one of a public officer’s expected …
Implications of the Public Trust doctrine
I continue my series on Maynilad vs. DENR, potentially a revolutionary decision by the Supreme Court. It is the best environmental decision the Court has ever made and especially because of its introduction to the Philippines of the Public Trust doctrine to our jurisprudence. This should have been done years ago. The concept of public …
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Water as a public trust
The Supreme Court could not be as clear in Maynilad vs. DENR, decided in August this year and which I summarized last Saturday: “Water is not a mere commodity for sale and consumption but a natural asset to be protected and conserved. Sanitation is its corollary constant […]” “We have a collective responsibility to preserve …
Tony La Viña 