The Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed its alliance with its global counterparts in enhancing modern judicial remedies for the protection and preservation of the environment.

Represented by Justice Maria Filomena D. Singh, the SC was participant during the five-day meeting of jurists and legal and technical experts on environment protection held last month in New York City.

During the meeting, the participants launched the Model Forest Act Initiative (MFAI), a global initiative to draft a Model Forest Act to guide in the enactment of legislations that will not only protect forests, but also ensure their development and growth for future generations.

The SC’s public information office (PIO) said the meeting was organized by the Asian Development Bank, in cooperation with the Global Judicial Institute on the Environment (GJIE), the United Nations Environment Programme, and the World Jurist Association (WJA).

The PIO said GJIE is a global task force composed of actively sitting judges organized to ensure judicial independence, transparency, and integrity of judiciaries around the world to effectively handle environmental cases by providing opportunities to exchange information, creating partnerships for collaboration, capacity-building, and providing research and analysis on topics important for environmental adjudication, court practices, and the environmental rule of law.

Justice Singh highlighted to the participants the importance of a responsive judiciary in ensuring the protection and preservation of the environment.

The justice shared how the SC has responded to the call for environmental protection and forest preservation, through the development of modern judicial remedies, such as the Writ of Kalikasan, the writ of continuing mandamus, and the environmental protection order.

She also said that aside from judicial responsiveness, “coordination between the relevant members of the justice sector is equally important to ensure that the environmental rule of law is strengthened.”

She pointed out that the Philippines tackles issues within the justice sector, which includes environmental justice, through the Justice Sector Coordinating Council (JSCC), a platform for a coordinated and strategic approach for members of the justice sector.

She unveiled the plan of the JSCC to launch the first green justice zone, a specialty justice zone designed to tackle pressing environmental issues within its jurisdiction.

The JSCC’s prime movers, aside from the SC, are the Department of Justice and the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

A justice zone is where judges, prosecutors, law enforcers and representatives of local government units (LGUs) meet on common interests, coordination, and information sharing.

It is a venue “where key programs relating to the delivery of justice are in place to maximize coordination among the different agency actors to address the perennial issue of delay and the greater problem of accountability.”

Last June, the JSCC launched the Tagaytay City justice zone as a “specialty justice zone.”  It will focus on economic development and tourism.

The 10 other justice zones are in Quezon City, Cebu City, Davao City, Angeles City, Bacolod City, Naga City, Calamba City, Balanga City, Baguio City, and Zamboanga City.

During the event, Justice Singh was inducted as a member of the GJIE Governing Council and joined her first council meeting.

Also, during the event, Justice Singh participated as a panelist in the World Law Congress hosted by the WJA.

She discussed the “challenges and trends in Judicial Implementation of the Environmental Rule of Law, and ways of making the abstract concepts of environmental law more felt and relatable in the daily lives of the citizenry.” (Rey Panaligan)