Marine mammals are petitioners in case vs oil exploration

In what could be a landmark case in the country, resident mammals of the Tanon Strait have been named petitioners in the injunction case filed on Tuesday before the Supreme Court against three Cabinet officials and a foreign oil exploration firm.

Among the animal petitioners are toothed whales, dolphins, porpoises and other cetaceans that populate the Tanon Strait protected seascape between Negros and Cebu islands.
The mammals are represented by environment lawyers Gloria Ramos and Liza Osorio as “legal guardians of the lesser life forms and as stewards of God’s creations.”

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was included as an unwilling co-petitioner against Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes, Environment Secretary Jose “Lito” Atienza, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regional director Leonardo Siballuca and the Japan Petroleum Exploration Corp.

Siballuca chairs the Tanon Strait protected seascape management board.

Lawyer Benjamine Cabrido Jr., counsel of the petitioners, on Tuesday said they included Arroyo as an unwilling co-petitioner because she signed several treaties and international conventions for the protection of the environment.

The 32-page petition for certiorari, mandamus and injunction alleges that the service contract signed by the government and Japex officials grossly violated the Constitution as well as international and municipal laws.

Ramos said the Philippines is signatory to several international treaties such as the United Nations Charter for Nature, which states that activities likely to cause irreversible damage to nature should be avoided and requires that exhaustive examination should precede activities likely to pose significant risk to the environment.

Global Nation