Dee, Manuel Jr.

2021400127

MMDA v. Concerned Citizens of Manila Bay. G.R. No. 171947-48, Dec. 18. 2005

Doctrine: The case provides for the scope of Art. II, Sec. 16, and RA 9003 as an
implement of the same.

Facts:
Respondents filed a complaint before the RTC against several government
agencies which included the petitioner for the cleanup, rehabilitation, and
protection of the Manila Bay. They alleged that the water quality of the said bay
had fallen bellow the allowable standards set by the Philippine Environment Code
due to the “reckless, wholesale, accumulated, and ongoing acts of omission or
commission of the defendants resulting in the clear and present danger to public
health and in the depletion and contamination of the marine life of Manila Bay and
alleges the same to be liable and be enjoined to clean the Manila Bay and to restore
its water quality. They further claim that the continued neglect of the petitioners
constitutes a violation of the constitutional right to life, health, and a balanced
ecology as well as other laws regulating the environment. The RTC ruled in favor
of respondents and ordered the petitioners to rehabilitate the Manila Bay.
Petitioners appealed before the CA, alleging that the pertinent provisions of
the Environment Code relate only to the cleaning of specific pollution incidents
and do not cover cleaning in general. Further, they aver that the cleaning of the
Manila Bay is not a ministerial act which can be compelled by mandamus. The CA
affirmed the Decision of the RTC.

Issue:
Whether or not Sections 17 and 20 of the Environment Code include
cleaning in general and not only specific incidents.
Supreme Court’s Ruling:
Yes. Sec. 17 requires petitioners to act even in the absence of a specific
pollution incident, as long as water quality "has deteriorated to a degree where its
state will adversely affect its best usage." RA 9003 is a piece of legislation which
implements Sec. 16, Article II of the Constitution. The right to a balanced and
healthful ecology need not even be written in the Constitution for it is assumed,
like other civil and political rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, to exist from
the inception of mankind and it is an issue of transcendental importance with
intergenerational implications.