The Supreme Court has created an Advisory Committee to verify the compliance reports of the government agencies tasked in a recent SC decision to clean up the Manila Bay.

Justice Presbitero J. Velasco, Jr., ponente of the landmark decision in Metropolitan Manila Development Authority v. Concerned Residents of Manila Bay (GR Nos. 171947-48), and who is currently in Eugene, Oregon, U.S.A. to attend the 3rd Annual Symposium of the Oregon Review of International Law: The Confluence of Human Rights and the Environment where he was invited as keynote speaker, was appointed Committee Chair, with SC Assistant Court Administrator Jose Midas P. Marquez as Vice-Chair and  former Department Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Dr. Elisea G. Gozun, former DENR Undersecretary Dr. Antonio G.M. La Viña, and former UP Marine Science Institute Director Dr. Gil S. Jacinto, as members.

In the decision, the Court ordered the government agencies to coordinate for the cleanup, restoration, and preservation of the water quality of the Manila Bay.  The decision, among others, required various government agencies to each submit to the Court a quarterly progressive report of the activities undertaken in line with the principle of “continuing mandamus.”

The Committee members will assist the Court in evaluating compliance by the concerned government agencies. Gozun, current Project Director of the City Development Strategies of the League of Cities of the Philippines, held key positions in environmental organizations such as the Partnership for Clean Air (Chair), Concerned Citizens Against Pollution (President), Earth Day Network in the Philippines (Executive Director), Solid Waste Management Association of the Philippines (Treasurer) and in the Clean Washington Center (Philippine Representative), among many others.

Currently the Dean of the Ateneo School of Government, La Viña is an expert on environmental law and policy, sustainable development, public ethics and legal philosophy, consensus building and conflict management of public disputes, and the governance of science and technology. He has written numerous books and articles and has been recognized internationally, especially in the fields of climate change, biodiversity, genetic engineering, mining, and trade and environment. He has worked for the World Resources Institute (WRI), a Washington DC based international environmental think tank, as Director of its Biological Resources Program as well as Senior Fellow of the Institutions and Governance Program. 

Jacinto is a professor and a chemical oceanographer from the UP Marine Science Institute who also dabbles in photography. He was awarded as Outstanding Chemistry Alumnus by the University of San Carlos in 2006. He has worked with fellow professor and UPMSI Director Maria Lourdes McGlone on chemical characterization of seawater to better understand the association of eutrophic waters with aquaculture and other pollution-related human activities.

Marquez on the other hand is the High Court’s spokesperson, Chief of the Public Information Office and the Chief of Staff of the Office of the Chief Justice.

The creation of the Committee is pursuant to the implementation of the December 18, 2008 decision.

Aside from the MMDA and the DENR, the Department of Education (DepEd), the Department of Health (DOH), the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), the Philippine National Police Maritime Group, and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) were also charged with the responsibility in cleaning-up the Manila Bay.

The International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement has lauded the Manila Bay decision and commended the Philippine Supreme Court which it said has “become an international beacon of hope in the arena of environmental jurisprudence.”

“The Philippine Supreme Court has placed itself at the vanguard of environmental thinking and has become an international beacon of hope in the arena of environmental jurisprudence. With severe environmental degradation becoming the norm, the world increasingly needs the strong leadership you have demonstrated and support from the judicial system in order to restore and preserve the environment for future generations,” said Durwood Zaelke, INECE Director and Institution for Governance & Sustainable Development President and Founder, in its February 2, 2008 letter to the Justices of the Philippine Supreme Court.

The INECE hailed what it referred to as “groundbreaking ruling” of the High Court, stressing that the Manila Bay decision “represents a significant step forward in environmental law by holding not only the current government accountable for Manila Bay, but future administrations as well.”

It further stressed that the decision puts a renewed importance on the environment instead of allowing it to become an afterthought, and places responsibility for environmental protection back onto polluters and the agencies established to regulate them to chart a course for economic development that considers environmental implications now and in the future.  “It is a critical decision, capable of spurring similar action in other countries,” INECE said.

Underscoring that the legal system has an increasingly important role to play in environmental protection, the INECE extolled the Philippines SC Justices for their “courage in taking a firm stance in the face of opposition from a large number of polluters and government agencies; forcing them to take responsibility for the current situation and to take action immediately and in the future to restore Manila Bay to its previous splendor.”

The INECE, a partnership of government and non-government enforcement and compliance practitioners from more than 150 countries, aims to raise awareness on compliance and enforcement; develop networks for enforcement cooperation; and strengthen capacity to implement and enforce environmental requirements. It is comprised of more than 4,000 members from international organizations, governmental agencies, and non-governmental organizations.

Meanwhile, the SC is preparing for its Forum on Environmental Justice: Upholding the Right to a Balanced & Healthful Ecology which will be held on April 16-17, 2009, at the University of the Cordilleras, Baguio City, with simultaneous video-links to the University of the Philippines-Visayas, Iloilo City, and Ateneo de Davao University, Davao City.