paradigm which would qualify as an

ideology is the protection of the

environment, a central feature of the
landmark case of Oposa v. Factora (GR
No. 101083, July 30, 1993) which is hailed
as one of the triumphs of
environmentalists before the Supreme
Court. In a unanimous decision, the Court
held:
While the right to a balanced and
healthful ecology is to be found under the
Declaration of Principles and State
Policies and not under the Bill of Rights, it
does not follow that it is less important
than any of the civil and political rights
enumerated in the latter. Such a right
belongs to a different category of rights
altogether for it concerns nothing less than
self-preservation and self-perpetuation x x
x the advancement of which may even be
said to predate all governments and
 constitutions. As a matter of fact, these
basic rights need not even be written in the
Constitution for they are assumed to exist
from the inception of humankind.
Several principles and doctrines on the
subject of natural resources and
environmental justice have since been
enunciated or restated by the Supreme
Court, and new laws, administrative rules
and regulations issued which inevitably
necessitates a revision of my book on Law
on Natural Resources and to expand it to
cover a broad range of environmental law
developments. I have therefore included in
the revised edition of the book, now re-
titled Law on Natural Resources and
Environmental Law Developments,
important laws on the subject, e.g., RA No.
9749 (Philippine Clean Air Act of
1999),RA No. 9275 (Philippine Clean
Water Act of 2004), and RA No. 9003
(Ecological Solid Waste Management Act
of 2000), RA No. 3931, PD No. 984 and EO
No. 192 (Pollution Adjudication Board).
A highlight of the revised edition is the
inclusion of Adm. Matter No. 09-6-8-SC
(Rules of Procedure for Environmental
Cases) which took effect on April 29, 2010.
Considered the first of its kind in the
world, this landmark rule of procedure in
environmental litigation is a significant
catalyst in support of far-reaching and
sweeping reforms in environmental justice
and protection, and implements the power
of the Supreme Court to promulgate
rules concerning the protection and
enforcement of constitutional rights and
to provide a simplified and inexpensive
procedure for the disposition of cases.
Fortified by my stint and experience as a
member of the Faculty of the Philippine
Judicial Academy (PHILJA), and as a
lecturer on environmental law, I have
attempted to discuss important provisions
of the pertinent law, rule or regulation,
amplified by the comments and
annotations of experts on the subject, and
illustrated, where appropriate, by
decisions of the Supreme Court. It is
hoped that the new edition will continue to
be of help and even inspiration to all lovers
of nature in their quest for environmental
justice.