Philippine Judicial Academy
October 15, 2013
Good afternoon, honorable Justices and Judges, colleagues from the profession and academe, students, ladies and gentlemen. It is an honor to stand before you today and share with you my thoughts and experiences, both good and bad, on the state of environmental law and governance in the country. … Read more
October 3, 2008
5th Metrobank Foundation Professorial Chair Lecture
Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, Justice Ameurfina Melencio-Herrera, Chancellor of the Philippine Judicial Academy, Justice Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, Honorable Justices of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals, Metrobank Foundation President Aniceto Sobrepena and his colleagues from the Foundation, Honorable Judges, Dean Marvic Leonen, Professor Gwen de Vera, and my colleagues in both U.P. and Ateneo, fellow lawyers, co-workers in the environmental movement, students, my wife and my sons, Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen, Good afternoon. … Read more
San Beda University
February 4, 2020
The Venerable Bede Distinguished Public Lecture Series
Sen. Edgardo Angara Memorial Lecture on Public Policy
June 16, 2015 was a big day for the Catholic Church, the environmental community, and I would say for the whole world. Years from now, the release of the “Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’ of the Holy FatherFrancis on care for our common home” will be remembered as a turning point for the planet. A184-page, 286-paragraphs (with 172 footnotes) long document, let me attempt to provide a summary of its main message. … Read more
Ateneo de Manila University
February 7, 2018
Ramon C. Reyes Memorial Lectures
The working title of my lecture was a mouthful, “Truth and Ethics in a Time of Political Anomie: Finding Paths Forward”. If it were not presumptuous, I would change it to “What will Dr. Ramon Reyes tell us now about truth and politics, how to deal with fake news, and the like?” … Read more
September 15, 2016
Rodrigo Duterte decisively won the presidency in May 2016 with a clear vision of governance and society and the promise of strong leadership that will change the Philippines. Central to this vision and promise is the idea that human rights must be subordinated in the war against crime, especially in defeating the drugs epidemic Superficially speaking, Duterte’s Philippines, at least in its treatment of human rights and the role of law, is not very far from Thomas More’s Utopia. In More’s world, lawyers are actually prohibited and citizens are assumed to know exactly what the law is and what right and wrong are, and to comply with all the rules laid won by the state. However, this condition is premised on an educated citizenry and an excellent justice system, neither of which holds for our country. … Read more
July 8, 2008
SCJ Professorial Lecture with Jose Ramon T. Villarin, SJ and Ma. Antonia Y. Loyzaga
The perfect storm is the convergence of two or more events with exceptional, powerful results. The recent popular use of the term was inspired by a meteorologist’s description of how the combination of three smaller storms turned out to be the “perfect situation” to unexpectedly produce an unimaginably calamitous event. Now, the motion picture based on this event shares its title as an oft-used modern idiom applied not just to the weather but to education, health, sports, or even food prices. … Read more
University of the Philippines
February 1-5, 2010
University of the Philippines Academic Congress with Eunice Agsaoay, Joanne Dulce, and Johanna Jambalos
In this paper, we provide an overview of recent policy and governance developments that are relevant climate change and disaster risk reduction. There are three such developments that merit attention in that together they can frame what the next administration must need to do when it takes over on June 30, 2010. … Read more
Tony La Viña 