Catholic Church urges Cordillera gov’ts to pass Nature Rights ordinances
BAGUIO CITY — The Catholic Church is asking local governments in the mountainous Cordillera region to pass ordinances establishing the Rights of Nature, a legal theory that ecosystems have the same right to “exist and flourish” as human beings and that would grant critically endangered forests and polluted waterways legal standing in courts.
Participants in the Church’s four-year climate resiliency project, Green Northern Luzon, mapped out the advocacy campaign during a two-day conference over the weekend at the Diocese of Baguio, with Caritas Philippines facilitating the project.
According to Yolly Esguerra, national coordinator of the Philippine Misereor Partnership Inc., giving trees, river boulders, and forest animals the right to sue for their own protection may sound silly at first, but it is a policy recourse that is slowly being embraced globally in light of unenforced environmental laws and other legal doctrines.
“Our environmental laws do not protect the subject of these laws, which is Nature. There must be something wrong with the framework of our legal system, so we need new jurisprudence that would recognize nature and ecosystems as legal entities and rights-bearing entities,” she added.
Rights of Nature bills are now pending in the House of Representatives, including House Bill No. 8352 and House Bill No. 7128, backed by 24 lawmakers such as Apayao Rep. Eleanor Bulut-Begtang, as well as Senate Bill No. 558, sponsored by Senator Risa Hontiveros, Esguerra said.
An “Ecocide” measure (House Bill No. 8189), which criminalizes the wanton destruction of the ecology, has also been filed in the House, she said. These measures are backed by a public signature campaign.
The Rights of Nature could also be incorporated into, or serve as the framework for, environmental codes in the municipalities and provincial governments of Benguet, Apayao, Kalinga, Abra, Ifugao, and Mountain Province, said Jocelyn Guela, Caritas national program coordinator, who spoke at the forum.
She addressed civil society groups and local governments that have been driving the Green Northern Luzon Project in collaboration with the social action centers of the Diocese of Baguio and Ilagan, the Apostolic Vicariate of Tabuk, and the Archdiocese of Tuguegarao.
READ: Nature’s place in PH Constitution
READ: Fighting for nature and the future
Launched in 2022, the Green Northern Luzon Project has spearheaded climate-oriented community programs to strengthen ecological protection measures and regulations, improve public participation in governance, develop livelihood programs such as Kalinga weaving in Tabuk City, and study the biodiversity conditions of communal forests in Barangay Tuel in Tublay, Benguet, and Barangay Sagpat in Kibungan, Benguet.
The project also draws on indigenous Filipino knowledge and traditions in protecting lands and river systems, Guela said.
In the final stages of the Green Northern Luzon Project this year, Caritas has focused on policies and regulations to sustain community environmental initiatives, Guela said, citing issues such as the growing trash problem in remote areas of the Cordillera. One activist said trash piles have accumulated from food and other items purchased in Baguio City and discarded along mountainsides.
More environmental issues continue to plague the country, such as the controversial clearing of mature trees along Manila’s Quirino Avenue to make way for the Southern Access Link Expressway and the potential impact on ecological policies of the energy crisis triggered by the war on Iran, Guela said.
A Caritas chart identified 71 provinces and cities in the country that need attention from activists because they have been subjected to, or are being primed for, mining activities.
The chart also showed that 82 provinces currently suffer from waste management issues, 29 provinces endure seabed quarrying and dredging, and 12 provinces are being considered as sites for nuclear power plants. /mcm
