Q: What is Preamble?
the seabed, the subsoil, the insular shelves, and
We, the sovereign Filipino people, imploring the
aid of Almighty God, in order to build a just and
humane society and establish a Government that
shall embody our ideals and aspirations, promote
the common good, conserve and develop our
patrimony, and secure to ourselves and our
posterity the blessings of independence and
democracy under the rule of law and a regime of
truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace,
do ordain and promulgate this Constitution.
Dean Vicente Sinco says of the Preamble: “The
preamble performs a vital function in a
constitution. Its value is not merely formal but
real and substantive. It is to the constitution what
the enacting clause is to a statue. The authenticity
of the authorship of the constitution is made
patent in the preamble. Without this or
something equivalent to it, the source of
authority that gives valid force to the
constitutional mandates may lie concealed,
perhaps left to the dangers of uncertain
conjectures.”
Thus, it was pointed out that “general welfare”
should really mean “ikabubuti ng nakararami”
while “common good” shall mean “ikabubuti ng
lahat”. Thus, all efforts and rules of society and
government should be for the welfare of all,
without exceptions. “The patrimony of the
Nation” now read “our patrimony”, to make it
more emphatic, a Nolledo amendment. The
words “blessings of independence and
democracy”, an Edmundo Garcia amendment,
to underscore the importance of true
independence even in the presence of democratic
beliefs and practices.
Q: Define Philippine Territory
The national territory comprises the Philippine
archipelago, with all the islands and waters
embraced therein, and all other territories over
which the Philippines has sovereignty or
jurisdiction, consisting of its terrestrial, fluvial
and aerial domains, including its territorial sea,
other submarine areas. The waters around
between, the connecting the islands of the
archipelago, regardless of their breadth and
dimensions, from part of the internal waters of
the Philippines. Art 1 of the 1987 Constitution.
Q: What is archipelagic doctrine?
Unclos, ratified by 165 states comprising 85% of
the entire membership of the United Nations, is
the primary international law governing the use
of the oceans and seas of our planet. Specifically,
Unclos governs the use of the following maritime
zones
Q: What is UNCLOS?
(a) internal waters or archipelagic waters, the
landward waters adjacent to the territorial sea;
(b) territorial sea, an area of 12NM from the
baselines along the coast,
(c) exclusive economic zone (EEZ), an area of
200NM from the baselines;
(d) extended continental shelf (ECS), an
additional are of 150 Nm from the outer limits of
the EEZ, and
e) The High Seas AREA which is the maritime
zone beyond the ECS. The High Seas belong to
all states, whether coastal or land-locked.
Q: Zones and rights under UNCLOS
The exclusive Economic Zone is an area beyond
and adjacent to the territorial sea, which shall not
extend beyond 200 nautical miles from the
baseline from which the territorial sea is
measured.
Territorial sea is 12 nautical miles from the
baseline. Contiguous zone is 24 nautical miles
from the baseline. Continental Shelf is 150
nautical miles from the baseline.
Q: Pact sunt servanda?
Tre states really bound to fulfill the commitments
they undertake pursuant to a bilateral or
multilateral treaty once it has been ratified and
then enters into force? According to pacta sunt
servanda, they are. This Latin phrase, which may
be roughly translated as “treaties shall be
complied with,” describes a significant general
principle of international law—one that underlies
the entire system of treaty-based relations
between sovereign states.
Petitioners submit that RA 9522 "dismembers a
large portion of the national territory" because it
discards the pre-UNCLOS III demarcation of
Philippine territory under the Treaty of Paris and
related treaties, however, petitioners’ theory fails
to persuade us. UNCLOS III has nothing to do
with the acquisition (or loss) of territory. It is a
multilateral treaty regulating, among others, sea-
use rights over maritime zones. It only recognizes
coastal and archipelagic States’ graduated
authority over a limited span of waters and
submarine lands along their coasts. On the other
hand, baselines laws such as RA 9522 are enacted
by UNCLOS III States parties to mark-out
specific basepoints along their coasts from which
baselines are drawn, either straight or contoured,
to serve as geographic starting points to measure
the breadth of the maritime zones and
continental shelf. Thus, baselines laws are
nothing but statutory mechanisms for UNCLOS
III States parties to delimit with precision the
extent of their maritime zones and continental
shelves. Territorial claims to land features are
outside UNCLOS III, and are instead governed
by the rules on general international law.
Whether referred to as Philippine "internal
waters" under Article I of the Constitution or as
"archipelagic waters" under UNCLOS III
(Article 49 [1]), the Philippines exercises
sovereignty over the body of water lying
landward of the baselines, including the air space
over it and the submarine areas underneath.
Thus, domestically, the political branches of the
Philippine government, in the competent
discharge of their constitutional powers, may
pass legislation designating routes within the
archipelagic waters to regulate innocent and sea
lanes passage. he imposition of these passage
rights through archipelagic waters under
UNCLOS III was a concession by archipelagic
States, in exchange for their right to claim all the
waters landward of their baselines, regardless of
their depth or distance from the coast, as archipelagic
waters subject to their territorial sovereignty. If the
maritime delineation is contrary to UNCLOS III,
the international community will of course reject
it and will refuse to be bound by it. UNCLOS III
favors States with a long coastline like the
Philippines. Nevertheless, the prerogative of
choosing this option belongs to Congress, not to
this Court. The enactment of UNCLOS III
compliant baselines law for the Philippine
archipelago and adjacent areas, as embodied in
RA 9522, allows an internationally-recognized
delimitation of the breadth of the Philippines’
maritime zones and continental shelf. RA 9522 is
therefore a most vital step on the part of the
Philippines in safeguarding its maritime zones,
consistent with the Constitution and our national
interest.
C. Article II
Section 15 Article II
The State shall protect and promote the right to
health of the people and instill health
consciousness among them.
Section 16. The State shall protect and advance
the right of the people to a balanced and healthful
ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony
of nature.
Q: Balanced ecology
"a state of dynamic equilibrium within a
community of organisms in which genetic,
species and ecosystem diversity remain relatively
stable, subject to gradual changes through natural
succession."
Q: What is Biodiversity?
Biodiversity is the variability among living
organisms from all sources, including terrestrial,
marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the
ecological complexes of which they are part; this
includes diversity within species, between
species, and of ecosystems. Biodiversity forms
the foundation of the vast array of ecosystem
services that critically contribute to human well-
being.
Q: What is your understanding of the concept of
GMO?
GMO (genetically modified organism) is the
result of a laboratory process where genes from
the DNA of one species are extracted and
artificially forced into the genes of an unrelated
plant or animal. The foreign genes may come
from bacteria, viruses, insects, animals or even
humans.
Q: What is the claim of Greenpeace on the
conduct of experiment conducted by the
Petitioner of BT Talong?
A: Greenpeace Southeast Asia filed before the
Court a Petition for Writ of Continuing
Mandamus and Writ of Kalikasan with Prayer for
the Issuance of a Temporary Environmental
Protection Order (TEPO)18 (petition for Writ of
Kalikasan) against herein petitioners alleging that
the Bt talong field trials violated their
constitutional right to health and a balanced
ecology considering, among others, that: (a) the
Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC), as
required by Presidential Decree No. (PD)
1151,19 was not secured prior to the field
trials;20 (b) the required public consultations
under the Local Government Code (LGC) were
not complied with;21 and (c) as a regulated article
under DAO 08-2002,
Bt talong is presumed harmful to human health
and the environment, and that there is no
independent, peer-reviewed study showing its
safety for human consumption and the
environment.22 Further, they contended that
since the scientific evidence as to the safety of Bt
talong remained insufficient or uncertain, and
that preliminary scientific evaluation shows
reasonable grounds for concern, the
precautionary principle should be applied and,
thereby, the field trials be enjoined
Q: What is the objective of the Petitioner in
conducting its experiment?
Petitioner University of the Philippines Los
Banos (UPLB), the implementing institution of
the field trials, conducted a contained experiment
on Bt talong under the supervision of the
National Committee on Biosafety of the
Philippines (NCBP).7 The NCBP, created under
Executive Order No. (EO) 430,8 is the
regulatory body tasked to: (a) "identify and
evaluate potential hazards involved in initiating
genetic engineering experiments or the
introduction of new species and genetically
engineered organisms and recommend measures
to minimize risks"; and (b) ''formulate and review
national policies and guidelines on biosafety,
such as the safe conduct of work on genetic
engineering, pests and their genetic materials for
the protection of public health, environment[,]
and personnel[,] and supervise the
implementation thereof." Upon the completion
of the contained experiment, the NCBP issued a
Certificate10 therefor stating that all biosafety
measures were complied with, and no untoward
incident had occurred.
Q: What action did the SC take in order to
carry out the constitutional guarantee to
good health
A: Agreeing with the CA, the Court held that the
precautionar; principle applies in this case since
the risk of harm from the field trials of Bt talong
remains uncertain and there exists a possibility of
serious and irreversible harm. The Court
observed that eggplants are a staple vegetable in
the country that is mostly grown by small-scale
farmers who are poor and marginalized; thus,
given the country's rich biodiversity, the
consequences of contamination and genetic
pollution would be disastrous and irreversible.