This article by Florangel Rosario Braid was published in Manila Bulletin on November 16, 2019.
Environmentalism’s next frontier is giving nature legal rights, a paradigm shift in especially in our country where our laws are centered on the human being, not on the environment. However, there is a growing movement around the world today which is seeking to expand the rights to demand protection for nature – rivers, trees, and ecosystems – through laws that would provide them rights.
There are already examples of activism in this area which indicate that we may be ready to adopt changes in our environmental laws. One example is the call for “Justice for Trees” for the “murdered 45 Baguio Pine Trees” where a volunteer organization, the Rehabilitation Action for Baguio (RAB) filed a Manifesto of support expressing grave disappointment over dismissal by the prosecutor’s office of a complaint filed by Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalang against officials of the Gateluck Corporation for chemically inducing by slow death 45 trees in its property along Legarda Rd. in Baguio City. It appears that last July 24, Mayor Magalang found out that holes were drilled at the base of each tree, into which a salt-like solution was injected thus causing the trees to die. The mayor charged them with 45 counts of violations against the city’s environmental codes and RA 11038, the Expanded National Integrated Protected Area System Act, and other pertinent environmental laws. If we had a law or even ordinance on “Rights of Nature,” a case like this could have been addressed much faster and perhaps more effectively.
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