The Supreme Court has directed the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Energy to comment on a petition filed by the toothed whales, dolphins, porpoises and other cetacean species of the Tañon Strait to stop the oil exploration in the protected seascape.

In an en banc resolution dated January 15, the Supreme Court directed the DENR and DoE to comment on the petition filed by the resident marine mammals through Cebu-based environmentalist-lawyers Gloria Estenzo Ramos and Rose Liza Eisma-Osorio.

The petitioners said the marine mammals, who have very good hearing abilities, have been disturbed by underwater blasting and drilling operations from the oil exploration that started in 1998.

The Japanese company, Japan Petroleum Exploration Co., Ltd. was tapped by the Philippine government to look for oil in the area declared by President Fidel Ramos in 1998 as a protected seascape through Presidential Proclamation 1234.

The Tañon strait, between Negros and Cebu, is the breeding, feeding and resting ground to 11 of the 25 marine mammals found in the Philippines .

The petitioners said that the oil exploration has resulted in reduced fish catch in the marine wildlife reserve.

They said the drilling and blasting operation, which is being done round-the-clock by JAPEX, "creates sound levels of high decibels" that affect the marine mammals and their habitat.

The petitioners also submitted to the court that the affected animals have a legal standing to file the petition and are the "real parties in interest" in the petition.

The real party in interest is the party who stands to be benefited or injured by the judgment in the suit or the party entitled to the proceeds of the suit, the petition said.

The lawyers also requested the court to recognize the petitioners as "Filipino mammals" with constitutional benefits.

"By analogy and owing to their choice of domiciliary at and around Tañon Strait , it may not be too much to ask Your Honors to declare your petitioners as Filipino mammals, thereby according them the foregoing constitutional benefits," the petitioners said.

The petition for certiorari with mandamus and injunction seeks to stop further offshore explorations by the Japan Petroleum Exploration Company Ltd., which started tests recently off the western side of the Philippine province of Cebu , which is flanked on both sides by the bio-diverse straits of Bohol and Tañon.

“This is a positive development,” said Estenzo-Ramos.*AP

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