CJ Gesmundo to Filipinos: ‘Fight for our right to healthy environment’

Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo has urged all Filipinos “to actively fight for our right to a healthy environment; otherwise, we lose the only place we all call home.”

In his message during the launching of the “Green Justice Zone” in Puerto Princesa City in Palawan last Friday, Nov. 10, Chief Justice Gesmundo cited the problem of climate change brought about by environmental degradation.

Gesmundo pointed out that the catastrophic effects of climate change are felt not only in the Philippines but in the entire world.

The setting up of a Justice Zone in Palawan, called “Green Justice Zone,” is “the justice sector’s concrete contribution towards affording our people their constitutional right to a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature.”

“In our Puerto Princesa Green Zone, the justice sector actors will deliver responsive and real-time justice services to our constituents,” he assured.

Justice Zones are set up nationwide by the Justice Sector Coordinating Council (JSCC) composed of the Supreme Court (SC), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).  With the Palawan Justice Zone, there are now 12 Justice Zones nationwide.

A Justice Zone is where judges, prosecutors, law enforcers, and representatives of local government units (LGUs) meet on common interests, coordination, and information sharing.

It is a venue “where key programs relating to the delivery of justice are in place to maximize coordination among the different agency actors to address the perennial issue of delay and the greater problem of accountability,” Gesmundo said.

He said one of the projects lined up for the creation of a “Green Book” which would be a manual for handling environmental cases that would detail “the end-to-end processes and procedures for all cases impacting our environment,”

“And when we say from ‘end to end,’ we mean from the monitoring and reporting aspect, to the investigation and case build-up side, to the prosecution and trial phase, until judgment, and ending in post-judgment, in the execution stage which will include the all-important restoration, indemnity and reparation steps,” he explained.

He also said: “Process and resource mapping will be done for the preparation of this Green Book. All the elements touched upon in the Green Book will thus undergo a review and assessment to identify gaps, weaknesses and chokepoints. Streamlining of rules and procedures will be the target with the result being greater efficiency and speed in the handling of these cases.”

“Towards this end, the Court, through the Office of the Court Administrator, issued the necessary Circular to conduct an inventory of all pending cases in Palawan involving any of our environmental laws, to monitor their status and progress, but at the same time to provide timely intervention through capacity building trainings for the judges, prosecutors, law enforcers, the community and other actors involved in the handling of these cases,” he said.

“Decisions in cases involving environmental laws rendered in the last ten (10) years will also be collated to study and project the average lifespan of these cases based on their nature, breaking them down in stages, to inform the preparation of the Green Book, as well as the revision of the Rules of Procedure in Environmental Cases,” he also said.

To achieve significant gains, Gesmundo said the active engagement of the community, through the barangays and organized civil society non-governmental organizations, will be tapped.
In the SC’s five-year Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations (SPJI), Gesmundo said the Committee on Environment and Sustainability headed by Senior Associate Justice Marvic M.V.F. Leonen has started a review of the rules of procedure on environmental cases such as those on Writ of Kalikasan and Writ of Continuing Mandamus.

He said that the committee has agreed “to conduct separate focus group discussions among members of the legal profession, the academic community, environmental advocates and public interest groups, the business sector, and with our judges designated as environmental courts.”

Outcome of the discussions will be considered together with the proposals from the Philippine Judicial Academy to amend the Environmental Rules, he also said.

At the same time, the Chief Justice said the committee “will also make proposals to the Court en banc (full court) with respect to the judiciary’s infrastructure development, fully aware of the need to create more green spaces, use more renewable energy, and protect our halls of justice from possible extreme weather disturbances.”

“Our push towards digitalization in our current strategic plan will protect court records and the resilience of our procedures,” he also said.

All the efforts being undertaken by the justice sector will lead to a “national summit on the judiciary and the challenge of climate change next year to validate the proposals coming from these different initiatives before we make the relevant proposals to the Court en banc,” he added.

He also said: “We are fully aware of the existential threat of climate change and that the duty to ensure a sustainable ecology is fundamental to all of our reforms. No less than our survival as a species and of the succeeding generations are at stake.

“We monitor the development of climate change litigation in other countries. Through our Committee on International Law, among its functions, we are also observing with keen interest the executive department’s laudable effort to intervene in the UN General Assembly’s Request for Opinion from the International Court of Justice on the legal duties of state parties on the issue of climate change.”

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