Mamamayang Liberal (ML) Partylist Rep. Leila de Lima has filed a measure seeking to address the shortcomings in the country’s current response to environmental degradation and climate crisis.
As an environmental justice advocate, De Lima introduced House Bill (HB) No. 8352 or the “Rights of Nature Act” to provide a legal personality to natural ecosystems and processes, recognizing their inherent and inalienable rights to exist, flourish, and regenerate.
“This bill aims to reorient the framework governing human interaction with nature. Instead of treating nature as property to be used, exploited, and preserved for human benefit, we seek to introduce a new worldview that recognizes the inherent rights of nature, thereby influencing subsequent laws and interactions of humans with nature,” the Bicolana lawmaker said.
“Through this Rights of Nature Act, any person shall have the right to defend, protect, and enforce the rights bestowed upon natural ecosystems and processes recognized under this legislation,” she added.
Under this measure, the State shall take all necessary actions to fully protect and enforce the rights of nature, including, but not limited to, the following:
– Develop and implement policies and regulations to guarantee and uphold the rights recognized in this Act; – Promote balanced forms of production and patterns of consumption that, while satisfying the needs of the Filipino people, safeguard the regenerative capacity and integrity of natural ecosystems and processes;
– Protect natural ecosystems and processes from the exploitation of their components, the commodification of living systems or the processes that support them, and the structural causes and effects of global climate change;
– Ensure long-term energy sovereignty, increased efficiency, and the gradual incorporation of clean and renewable alternative sources into the energy matrix; – Demand international recognition of ecological debt through the financing and transfer of clean technology compatible with the rights recognized in this Act;
– Promote peace and the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction; and
– Promote the recognition of the rights of natural ecosystems and processes in multilateral, regional, and bilateral international relations.
If enacted into law, the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) are mandated to integrate into the curriculum of all levels the respect for and recognition of the inherent and inalienable rights of natural ecosystems.
Any person who violates any of the provisions of this Act shall be punished with six (6) months to two (2) years of imprisonment or a fine of five million pesos (P5,000,000.00) to ten million pesos (P10,000,000.00), or both, at the discretion of the court.
“Tulad natin, nilikha ng Maykapal ang kalikasan hindi para maging kasangkapan lang o para sa ating kapakinabangan, kundi bilang kasama nating umiral sa mundo na malaya sa karahasan at pang-aabuso,” De Lima said.
“Ang pagkilala sa karapatan ng kalikasan ay hindi lang pangangalaga sa kanilang buhay at pagsiguro sa kanilang pagyabong, kundi pagtitiyak din sa ligtas na kinabukasan at maginhawang pamumuhay ng bawat nilalang,” she added.
De Lima’s HB 8352 adopts several provisions from similar bills in the 20th Congress and was developed in consultation with Philippine Misereor Partnership Inc. (PMPI) and the Rights of Nature Network in the Philippines.
