Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
*
G.R. No. 101083. July 30, 1993.
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* EN BANC.
793
794
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795
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797
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5 Id., 74.
798
CAUSE OF ACTION
799
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of
800
the State to
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6 Rollo, 7073.
7 Annex B of Petition Id., 4344.
801
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802
xxx
After a careful and circumspect evaluation of the Complaint,
the Court cannot help but agree with the defendant. For although
we believe that plaintiffs have but the noblest of all intentions, it
(sic) feel short of alleging, with sufficient definiteness, a specific
legal right they are seeking to enforce and protect, or a specific
legal wrong they are seeking to prevent and redress (Sec. 1, Rule
2, RRC). Furthermore, the Court notes that the Complaint is
replete with vague assumptions and
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804
SEC. 16. The State shall protect and advance the right of the
people to a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the
rhythm and harmony of nature.
SEC. 15. The State shall protect and promote the right to health
of the people and instill health consciousness among them.
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805
not under the Bill of Rights, it does not follow that it is less
important than any of the civil and political rights
enumerated in the latter. Such a right belongs to a
different category of rights altogether for it concerns
nothing less than selfpreservation and selfperpetuation
aptly and fittingly stressed by the petitionersthe
advancement of which may even be said to predate all
governments and constitutions. 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 wellfounded 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 comegenerations which stand to inherit
nothing but parched earth incapable of sustaining life.
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MR. VILLACORTA:
Does this section mandate the State to provide sanctions
against all forms of pollutionair, water and noise
pollution?
MR. AZCUNA:
Yes, Madam President. The right to healthful (sic)
environment necessarily carries with it the correlative
duty of not impairing the same and, therefore, sanctions
may be prov
12
ided for impairment of environmental
balance.
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806
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13 For instance, the Preamble and Article XII on the National Economy
and Patrimony.
14 The Reorganization Act of the Department of Environment and
Natural Resources.
15 E.O. No. 292.
807
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(2) The State shall likewise recognize and apply a true value
system that takes into account social and environmental cost
implications relative to the utilization, development and
conservation of our natural resources.
808
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16 Section 1.
17 Section 2.
18 Maao Sugar Central Co. vs. Barrios, 79 Phil. 666 [1947] Community
Investment and Finance Corp. vs. Garcia, 88 Phil. 215 [1951] Remitere
vs. Vda. de Yulo, 16 SCRA 251 [1966] Caseas vs. Rosales, 19 SCRA 462
[1967] Virata vs. Sandiganbayan, 202 SCRA 680 [1991] Madrona vs.
Rosal, 204 SCRA 1 [1991].
19 Section 1(q), Rule 16, Revised Rules of Court.
809
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20 Adamos vs. J.M. Tuason and Co., Inc. 25 SCRA 529 [1968] Virata vs.
Sandiganbayan, supra Madrona vs. Rosal, supra.
21 39 SCRA 473, 479 [1971].
810
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811
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24 Rollo, 44.
25 125 SCRA 302, 325 [1983].
812
SEC. 10.
27
No law impairing, the obligation of contracts shall be
passed.
cannot be invoked.
In the second place, even if it is to be assumed that the
same are contracts, the instant case does not involve a law
or even an executive issuance declaring the cancellation or
modification of existing timber licenses. Hence, the non
impairment clause cannot as yet be invoked. Nevertheless,
granting further that a law has actually been passed
mandating cancellations or modifications, the same cannot
still be stigmatized as a violation of the
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813
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814
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815
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Section 1. x x x
Judicial power includes the duty of the courts of justice to
settle actual controversies involving rights which are legally
demandable and enforceable, and to determine whether or not
there has been a grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or
excess of jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality
of the Government. (Emphases supplied)
818
o0o
819
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