Reconciling laws
In other cases, the law may not be as clear, and it is not apparent who has jurisdiction on environmental matters. In Ruzol v. Sandiganbayan,7 the Court laid down the rule regarding apparent conflicts between national and local laws. The case involves a criminal complaint for usurpation of authority filed against the Mayor for issuing permits to transport salvaged forest products. The prosecution asserted that the Mayor usurped the official functions that belong to the DENR. The Court acquitted the defendant and upheld the authority of the local government unit to issue said permits. The Court explained that, if there appears to be a conflict between statutes and rules or regulations issued by different government instrumentalities, the proper course of action is not to uphold one and annul the other, but to give effect to both by harmonizing them if possible. In other words, instead of pitting one statute against another, courts must exert every effort to reconcile them. The court, therefore, held that, although the DENR requires a Wood Recovery Permit to gather and dispose abandoned logs, drifted logs, sunken logs, uprooted, and fire and typhoon damaged tress, tree stumps, tops and branches, a local government unit is “not necessarily precluded from promulgating, pursuant to its power under the general welfare clause, complementary orders, rules or ordinances to monitor and regulate the transportation of salvaged forest products.� The Court recognized the significant role of LGU’s in environmental protection and upheld the view that the monitoring and regulation of salvaged forest products through the issuance of appropriate permits is a shared responsibility, which may be done either by the DENR, by the LGUs, or by both.
In that case, the Supreme Court held: While the DENR is, indeed, the primary government instrumentality charged with the mandate of promulgating rules and regulations for the protection of the environment and conservation of natural resources, it is not the only government instrumentality clothed with such authority. While the law has designated
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G.R. No. 186739-960, April 17, 2013.
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