SC petitioned to void ‘restrictive’ DENR FOI policy

As the recent damages of consecutive typhoons Tino and Uwan revealed the deadly consequences of anomalous flood control and other environmentally critical projects, policy and advocacy group Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC) led today the filing of a Petition for Certiorari and Mandamus at the Supreme Court (SC) to challenge the current barriers to freedom of information (FOI) in environmental matters of public concern.

“The prevailing restrictions of the DENR FOI Manual practically bar access to, much less scrutinize, environmental information of ­­­­­447 major environmentally critical projects that have been issued Environmental Compliance Certificates (ECCs) by the DENR. DENR’s repeated denials of our FOI requests over potentially destructive and anomalous environmentally critical projects that the concerned public has a right to hold accountable are clearly a grave abuse of discretion,” said Atty. Rolly Francis Peoro, Direct Legal Services Coordinator of LRC.

The petition challenges the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Administrative Order No. 2016-29, or the DENR FOI Manual, which has a List of Exceptions that prohibits public access to, among others, environmental records for projects already granted environmental compliance certificates.

Among the projects of which LRC requested copies of Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) and other environmental information are reported ‘ghost’ flood control and dredging projects and controversial large-scale mines. Together with the Diocese of Marbel, the Center particularly looked into the Tampakan Copper-Gold Project, a 26,501-hectare large-scale mining project in South Cotabato province that is one of the largest underdeveloped copper-gold deposits in the world.

“The Tampakan mine would probably alter river systems coursing through four different provinces in Mindanao and require the clearing of old-growth forests. As it would directly affect thousands, if not millions, of Filipinos, the public certainly has the right to know the terms granted to the mining company in its Financial or Technical Assistance Agreement,” said Marbel Bishop Cerilo Casicas, who joined LRC as a petitioner in the case. 

“Let us heed the late Pope Francis in his Laudato Si’ calling for a ‘new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet,’ a ‘conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all’,” the prelate urged. 

These requests made over the course of the past two years would be repeatedly denied by the DENR, citing the List of Exceptions of their FOI Manual.

“With the systemic and arbitrary denial of requests for environmentally critical information, the people’s rights to health, to due process, and to a balanced and healthful ecology are also threatened,” Dean Tony La Viña, co-counsel for the petitioners, explained. “The petitioners, the affected communities, and the broader concerned public are rendered blind—and therefore unable to demand due diligence or accountability—to whatever ecological risks posed by any environmentally critical project they face.”

The petition called for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) and/or a Writ of Preliminary Injunction to enjoin the DENR from implementing the FOI Manual, and to allow the petitioners and the public to access EIS and all other related environmental information filed in the process of an application for ECC before the DENR.

It also urged the SC, after due deliberations, to declare the FOI Manual unconstitutional and make permanent the TRO and/or injunction.###