Boracay workers, tourist appeal Supreme Court ruling for island closure

The two Boracay workers and a tourist who challenged the six-month island closure have appealed the Supreme Court ruling upholding the rehabilitative shutdown.

The petitioners through their counsel asked the High Court to reconsider its Feb. 12 decision which held that President Rodrigo Duterte's proclamation ordering the closure was a valid police power measure that did not impair the right to travel.

In their motion for reconsideration, petitioners Mark Anthony Zabal, Thiting Estoso Jacosalem, and Odon Bandiola contended that the right was, in fact, "deliberate[ly]" violated, however "temporary or fleeting."

"The curtailment of a fundamental right is no less serious merely because it is temporary," they said in a pleading prepared by the National Union of People's Lawyers.

"It should also be pointed out that the temporary nature of the infringement does not change the fact that the damage had been done, with the livelihoods of thousands of workers—petitioners included—being affected or lost, all to the detriment of these workers and their families," they stated.

Additionally, the petitioners said any order issued by the President without a law providing for a delegation of legislative power is "null and void."

The Court also ruled that two of the petitioners, a sandcastle maker and a driver, do not have vested rights to their income sources because they are in the informal sector "where earnings are not guaranteed"—a point that Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, a dissenter, said may have displayed the Court's lack of compassion for the petitioners.

The NUPL argued the Constitution "protects the right to earn a living per se," regardless of whether one's income is fixed or not.

They also claimed Proclamation No. 475 "severely undercut the authority of the local government units in Aklan and undermined the existing state policy... that local autonomy must be ensured."

Finally, they said Duterte "never lacked viable options" in addressing environmental problems in Boracay "that were consistent with the Constitution." —KG, GMA News