Legal Ethics is environmental ethics

As stewards of earth, every person has a responsibility to promote and

protect the environment. Such responsibility is neither rooted from a statute or a
treaty but ultimately sourced from our natural survival instinct. The dissipation of
the environment would result to dissipation of human life since humans rely on the
environment for existence. The treat to existence has already bestowed upon
human being the responsibility to sustain and safeguard the environment.
Furthermore, enacted statutes or laws positively compel individual to
conserve and protect the natural environment with corresponding penalty for any
violation thereof.
Laws lay down framework and protocol for environmental
protection and development which are in coherence with all individual subject. Laws
further confer additional responsibility for the protection and sustenance of the
environment. Thus, laws resulted to greater responsibility than mere existence.
Members of the bar and the bench lies the greatest role in the protection and
promotion the environment. The responsibility arose not just from their mere
existence nor from compulsion of law but from their positive unequivocal oath when
they took their Lawyers Oath. Lawyers voluntarily and unambiguously declared that
they will support the Constitution and obey the laws as well as the legal orders of
the duly constituted authorities of the Republic of the Philippines. Unmistakably,
their support and obedience to the Constitution, laws and legal orders include
environmental protection.
Environmental protection is stressed in the very Preamble of the 1987
Constitution which states that We, the sovereign Filipino people xxx in order to
build a just and humane society that shall embody our ideals xxx conserve and
develop our patrimony. Further, Article II. Declaration of Principles and State
Policies provides in Section 16 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. Article XII emphasized the need to efficient utilization of natural
resources and further its Section 2 declared that the State shall protect the
nations marine wealth in its archipelagic waters, territorial sea, and exclusive
economic zone xxx.
The legislature also enacted various laws for the protection of the
environment i.e. R.A. No. 8749 or the Clean Air Act, R.A. 9147 or the Wildlife
Conservation and Protection Act, and R.A. 9275 or the Clean Air Act. The Supreme
Court itself contributed in the protection of the environment by issuing A.M. no. 096-8-SC or The Rules of Procedure for Environmental Cases. Likewise, it promulgated
the landmark jurisprudence in the cases of Oposa vs. Factoran (G.R. No. 101083,
July 30, 1993) and Resident Marine Mammals vs. Reyes (G.R. No. 180771/ G.R. No.
181527, April 21, 2015) to emphasize the necessity for protecting and promoting
the environment.
The Constitution and the various laws, administrative orders and decisions of
the Supreme Court shall be the guiding light of lawyers in their undertaking to
support the Constitution and obey the laws and the legal orders. Every lawyer must

and always comply with their oath otherwise they could be considered of be unfit to
practice law. Legal ethics affords extraordinary duty to protect and promote the
environment to a lawyer. Thus, we can now say, Legal ethics transcends
Environmental ethics.