City Council wants eco-related measures fully implemented

CEBU, Philippines —  The Cebu City Council has requested the executive department, through the Office of the Mayor, to fully implement and strictly monitor the implementation of all environment-related ordinances passed by the City Council.

The council also requested the secretariat to do an inventory of all environment-related ordinances and resolutions passed and adopted by the Sangguniang Panlungsod and to codify the same.

Councilor Alvin Dizon sponsored a resolution regarding the matter which was approved last week.

Dizon said the council has passed several measures pertaining to the environment and the full international recognition of the right to a healthy, clean, and sustainable environment.

He said these should serve as legal and moral basis as well as urgent call to action for these measures to be fully implemented and their implementation strictly monitored.

“It is our primary responsibility to promote, protect and guarantee this right on the premise that it is the state of our natural environment— ecosystem, our water, air, soil— that determines a life of either dignity or misery for all of us given the pressing realities of climate change we are now being confronted,” said Dizon.

On October 8, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council recognized that having a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is a fundamental human right.

Dizon said this landmark decision by the said council as emphasized by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet “is about protecting people and planet- the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat. It is also about protecting the natural systems which are basic preconditions to the lives and livelihoods of all people, wherever they live. And that the right to a healthy environment serves as a springboard to push for transformative economic, social, and environmental policies that will protect people and nature.”

He added the Philippines voted yes to both Resolutions 48/13 and 48/14 recognizing that access to a safe and healthy environment is a fundamental human right and created the office a special rapporteur on human rights in the context of climate change, respectively.

Article II, Section 16 of the Philippine Constitution, vests in the State the ultimate responsibility to preserve and protect the environment by providing that “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.” — FPL (FREEMAN)