Advocates need to ‘push hard’ for rule of law amid deaths of environmental defenders —campaigner

A lawyer and environmental activist on Thursday said advocates need to "push hard" for rule of law after the Philippines was reported to be the second most dangerous country in the world for environmental defenders.

Watchdog group Global Witness has reported that 43 environmental campaigners in the Philippines were murdered in 2019. Nearly half of the killings recorded during President Rodrigo Duterte's term have been linked to the military or paramilitary groups, the NGO said.

"Our Constitution is quite strong, but as advocates we need to push hard for the rule of law to be a reality in the country," Oceana Philippines' Gloria Ramos said at a webinar on the 27th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court ruling in the case of Oposa vs. Factoran.

She said the killings are a challenge not only to environmental defenders but to human rights advocates as well. Ramos said advocates, including young leaders, need to strengthen their collaboration.

For her part, Grizelda Mayo-Anda of the Environmental Legal Assistance Center said advocates need to "build champions within government" so they can understand their opposition to mining and infrastructure projects that have harmed forests and displaced communities.

"Government officials, local officials and the security sector do not have a good sense of what environmental justice is on the ground and what environmental defenders are doing to help the government," Mayo-Anda told GMA News Online.

"Environmental problems/issues are intertwined with politics, socio-economic and cultural issues," she said.

Both Ramos and Mayo-Anda cited the new anti-terrorism law as a threat to environmental defenders.

"Many environmental defenders are opposing the Anti-Terrorism Act because some provisions contradict the Constitution and can put at risk the environmental advocacy and enforcement efforts of environmental defenders," Mayo-Anda said.

Their statements come as environmental advocates looked back on the case of the 43 children who had sought the cancellation of all timber license agreements in the Philippines, invoking their right to a balanced and healthful ecology.

In 1993, the SC ruled that the children petitioners, represented by lawyer Antonio Oposa, Jr., had legal standing to initiate the case on their behalf and that of "generations yet unborn" based on the concept of "intergenerational responsibility."

The case reached the SC after a trial court dismissed Oposa's suit.

The SC set aside the trial court's ruling and granted the children's petition, allowing them to amend their complaint to name as defendants the holders of the questioned timber license agreements.

Through then-justice Hilario Davide, Jr., the highest Philippine court said the right to a balanced and healthful ecology "carries with it the correlative duty to refrain from impairing the environment."

On Thursday, Davide said he had "no difficulty" writing the decision, calling it "one of the noblest and glorious victories of all generations." — BM, GMA News