Atty. Gregorio B. Austral, CPA
Ambitious but cautious
LGUs would have received a substantial increase in their National Tax Allocation (NTA) had it not been because of the pandemic. With an increased budget, local governments may be tempted to implement big projects. Before implementing these projects, LGUs are exhorted to be conscious of the negative impact of their planned projects on the environment.
One important consideration that LGUs must consider as a matter of policy is the precautionary principle. The principle traces its history in Germany in the 1960s, expressing the normative idea that governments are obligated to “foresee and forestall” harm to the environment. The Court noted Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development codified the precautionary approach, in this wise:
“In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.”
The Supreme Court, in the Bt Talong case decided years ago, identified the conditions for the application of the precautionary principle as follows:
For purposes of evidence, the precautionary principle should be treated as a principle of last resort, where application of the regular Rules of Evidence would cause in an inequitable result for the environmental plaintiff – (a) settings in which the risks of harm are uncertain; (b) settings in which harm might be irreversible and what is lost is irreplaceable; and (c) settings in which the harm that might result would be serious. When these features – uncertainty, the possibility of irreversible harm, and the possibility of serious harm – coincide, the case for the precautionary principle is strongest. When in doubt, cases must be resolved in favor of the constitutional right to a balanced and healthful ecology. Parenthetically, judicial adjudication is one of the strongest fora in which the precautionary principle may find applicability.
The presence of the conditions of uncertainty, the possibility of irreversible harm and the possibility of serious harm are sufficient grounds for the courts to issue injunctive reliefs.