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 Court
Orders Government to Clean Up Manila Bay
The
Regional Trial Court of Imus, Cavite (Branch 20) issued
a historic judgment ordering 12 government agencies
to clean up Manila Bay. The Court, speaking through
Executive Judge Lucenito Tagle, directed the Department
of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) as the lead
agency to "prepare a consolidated and coordinated
action plan for the restoration of Manila Bay to make
it fit for swimming and other forms of contact
recreation."
Residents
around Manila Bay, represented by environmental law
students of the University of the Philippines (UP) filed
the action, using an antiquated and little-known law
requiring "concerned government agencies to clean
up a polluted body of water." During trial, it
was proved that while the standard for fecal coliform
(bacteria from feces) for a swimable body of water is
only 200 units, the waters in Manila Bay contain as
much as 100,000 units. (Image shows pollution in
Manila Bay.)
The
lead counsel in the case, Tony Oposa, commended the
Court for this extraordinary ruling. "It is no
doubt the first legal action of its kind in the Philippines
and probably in the world where a Court of Law ordered
a dozen government agencies to undertake a coordinated
clean up campaign for a body of water." Mr. Oposa
made international headlines for his role in the landmark
1993 case, Oposa v. Factoran (G.R.NO: 101083) in which
the Philippine Supreme Court held, inter alia,
that a group of minors had the right to sue on behalf
of succeeding generations because every generation has
a responsibility to the next to preserve the rhythm
and harmony of nature for the full enjoyment of a balanced
and healthful ecology. For more information on the Manila
Bay case, contact Cindy Cabote at cindyfc@axti.com.
ADB
Publishes Training Guide for Environmental Law in Asia
and Pacific
The
Asian Development Bank (ADB) recently released Capacity
Building for Environmental Law in the Asian and Pacific
Region: Approaches and Resources, a much-needed training
guide for environmental law students and government
officials in Asia and the Pacific. The book is an outgrowth
of materials first used as part of two training courses
conducted at the Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental
Law (APCEL) at the National University of Singapore
for 63 law professors from 15 regional countries.
Edited
by three law professors, the pioneering book is a tool
to address environmental problems and develop laws to
support sustainable development. It was produced through
a joint effort of ADB, the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature (IUCN), APCEL, the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) and many others in answer
to a call at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio for better
training in environmental and developmental law.
INECE
partner Mr. Lal Kurukulasuriya commented "UNEP
will use this new publication extensively in its environmental
law capacity building activities targeting university
teachers and students, as well as other stakeholders
such as civil society groups, the private sector and
the media." A copy of the report is available at
http://www.iucn.org/themes/law/pdfdocuments/ADBorderform.pdf.
USEPA
Civil Penalty Model Demonstrated in Australia
Representatives
of the United States Environmental Protection Agency
recently traveled to Australia to demonstrate the BEN
computer model, which calculates a violator's economic
savings from delaying and/or avoiding pollution control
expenditures.
At
the request of the Australian states of New South Wales,
South Australia and Western Australia, the U.S. EPA's
Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA)
sent one of its veteran enforcement attorneys, Jonathan
Libber, to make a series of twelve presentations in
Perth, Adelaide and Sydney, Australia. The main topics
of the meetings were: EPA's civil penalty program; experience
with its community right to know law, EPCRA; use of
civil judicial and administrative enforcement approaches,
the use of supplemental environmental projects (SEPs)
to mitigate civil penalties; and OECA's audit policy.
There
was a great deal of interest in EPA's civil penalty
authority and its policy of recapturing any economic
gains a violator may acquire as a result of its violations.
Despite their reluctance to argue for specific penalty
amounts, Australian enforcement personnel thought that
it would be appropriate for government attorneys to
make a judge aware of how much money was probably saved
through the violator's illegal conduct.
BEN
is a user-friendly computer model that quickly calculates
a violator's economic savings from delaying and/or avoiding
compliance and could be implemented easily in Australia.
There was also interest in OECA's greatly simplified
"rule of thumb" approach for calculating economic
savings for small, uncomplicated cases. For further
information about EPA's civil penalty approach and the
methods for calculating a violator's economic savings
from violating the law, contact Jonathan Libber at libber.jonathan
@epa.gov. For a copy of the BEN model, visit http://www.epa.gov/compliance/civil/programs/econmodels/index.htm.
For
more news from Asia, see these articles:
In
addition, please visit INECE's Asia Forum, at http://www.inece.org/region_asia.html.
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