Finally, a Carolinian in the Supreme Court!
We’ve only talked about the bad news swirling around us when Typhoon “Tisoy” ravaged southern Luzon and much of the Visayas. But now that the typhoon has left us, we bring you good cheer for the latest news that we got a fellow Carolinian by the name of Justice Edgardo Delos Santos from the Court of Appeals (CA) here in Cebu City, together with another Justice Mario Lopez, who was appointed by President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte to fill the vacancies of the Supreme Court (SC).
Justice Edgardo Delos Santos finished law studies at the University of San Carlos (USC). He has been known as a “Habal-Habal Justice” as he rides his motorcycle to work. But I have known him since he issued the Writ of Kalikasan, a decision that shut down our controversial sanitary landfill in Cebu City, a landfill that I helped create during my days as chairman of the Infrastructure and Utilities Committee (IUC) of the Regional Development Council-7. At that point, I found it unbelievable that the sanitary landfill would get filled up so soon. But thanks to Justice Delos Santos for issuing that Writ of Kalikasan, the landfill has been shut down.
We learned that with the filling of the two vacancies created by the retirement of Justices Antonio Carpio and Francis Jardeliza, President Duterte now has 12 members of the Supreme Court who owe their seats to him. By 2022, only two of 15 high court members will be non-Duterte appointees. Justice Delos Santos had served as Court of Appeals (CA) Justice in Cebu City for 11 years and has been with the Judiciary as a trial judge in Dumaguete for 40 years.
The appointment of Justice Delos Santos puts another “Bisaya” into the High Tribunal and to many of us who studied law at USC, it puts a Carolinian in the Supreme Court (SC) at a time when USC Law under Dean Joan Largo is topping the Bar for USC. But more importantly, I know that Justice Delos Santos deserved his appointment from President Duterte. We honor this appointment and maybe someday, we’d visit him in his new office at the SC. Congratulations, sir!
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I just wrote a column last Tuesday for us to stop using single-use plastics in order to protect our environment, especially our marine life. Then came the news yesterday that the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) is opposed to the proposed ban on single-use plastics in Cebu City.
CCCI board secretary Francis Dy expressed the chamber’s opposition during the joint public hearing of the four proposed ordinances seeking to regulate and or total ban of the use of plastics in the city. We further learned that Councilors Nestor Archival Sr., Alvin Dizon, Eugenio Gabuya Jr., and Eduardo Rama emphasized the urgency to take actions to lessen the plastic waste, which we really must enact into a law.
The four councilors are seeking to prohibit the use of single-use plastics such as disposable utensils in all business establishments. Honestly, I never talked with these councilors, but I salute them for their environmental awareness. However, Mr. Dy said that the proposal will not only affect the business establishments but the employees of the manufacturers as well. Mr. Dy further explained that they are against the proposed ordinances since the most common alternative option, which is paper bags, is still harmful to the environment. He added: “The total phase out of plastic in the city will not only affect the businesses and manufacturers but also its employees.”
At this point, we are not saying that we want a law that would be harmful to our employees; rather, we want our people to be aware of the plastic world that surrounds them when they go shopping inside a supermarket or grocery store. As I wrote in my column last Tuesday, we learned that Coca-Cola was once again named the world’s largest plastic polluter for the second year in a row. This report came from the nonprofit Break Free from Plastic that tagged the Atlanta-based Coke as the biggest producer of plastic waste. Come now, if Coca-Cola is the largest polluter, who are the other big polluters in the world? Coca-Cola was number one, with almost 12,000 Coca-Cola products found in 37 countries across the world and they are followed by Nestlé and PepsiCo. Just look all the sachets you will see in coffee mates, sugar, chocolate bars, juices, chewing gums, etc, etc! The Chamber should help us rather than oppose this measure!
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