Business World Online
Posted on January 30, 2011 10:58:08 PM
BY NATHANIEL R. MELICAN, ReporterTHE COURT of Appeals (CA) has dismissed a Writ of Kalikasan (nature) petition filed by residents in Makati City to halt the installation and operation of high-voltage power lines in their subdivisions.
In a 24-page decision promulgated Jan. 20, the appellate court’s former 17th division junked the petition of Magallanes Village and Villamor Air Base residents for failing to link the impact if electromagnetic fields (EMF) emitted by the power lines on the environment, including adverse effects to health.
"In failing to prove the causal link between the illnesses feared and the EMF generating from Meralco’s (Manila Electric Co.) power lines, petitioners have, in fact failed to discharge evidentiary burden," a copy of the decision obtained by BusinessWorld read.
Counsels for the petitioners could not be immediately reached for comment.
A total of 41 residents of Barangay 183, Zone 20 in Villamor, Pasay City, and Magallanes Village, Makati, filed the petition against Meralco, Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal (NAIA) 3 administrator Manila International Airport Authority and the barangay chairman and council members of Barangay 183 last November, claiming the EMF and extreme low frequency (ELF) generated by the 115-kilovolt wires could lead to diseases such as "cancer, leukemia in children, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, miscarriages, headaches, memory loss and insomnia."
Petitioners cited a section of Presidential Decree 856, or the Code of Sanitation of the Philippines, which states that "high-tension transmission lines shall never pass overhead or underground of residential areas."
However, the court said petitioners failed to specify the environmental damage or threat from the operation of the power lines which will supply electricity to NAIA-3.
"There is admittedly a glaring absence of any allegation directed against violation of petitioners’ right to a balanced and healthful ecology (or the right to health, as insisted by petitioners) and the purported environmental damage arising from the installation and energization of Meralco’s sub-transmission lines," the decision read.
The petitioners presented several studies to back up claims, especially on EMF and ELF relation to higher risk of acquiring leukemia, but the court said such studies were inconclusive.
"At best, the data gathered are purely statistical in nature with no scientific evidence or conclusion as to whether the leukemia suffered by the subjects had been caused initially by their exposure to EMF-ELF or the direct impression of some other factor, environmental or otherwise," the decision read.
The court added that petitioners also failed to substantiate claims that the electric posts were tilting on the direction of the houses, and that the wires were strung too close to houses.
"During the preliminary conference, petitioners could not state with certainty the distance of the electric wire from the house of one of the petitioners, let alone show the alleged tilting of the posts or the consequential damage to the drainage system," the decision said.
Meanwhile, the court accepted evidence submitted by Meralco indicating that the power lines emit a magnetic field of 16.7 milliGauss (mG), way below the 833mG exposure limit set by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection that has been adopted by the Department of Health (DoH).
The court also noted that Meralco has obtained clearances and compliance certificates from DoH, Pasay City government, Department of Environment and Natural Resouces and other agencies before pushing through with the project.
"The construction of the poles and the energization of the sub-transmission lines are far from unauthorized or unlawful. In fact, they are more of a necessity than anything else," the decision read.
"In failing to prove the causal link between the illnesses feared and the EMF generating from Meralco’s (Manila Electric Co.) power lines, petitioners have, in fact failed to discharge evidentiary burden," a copy of the decision obtained by BusinessWorld read.
Counsels for the petitioners could not be immediately reached for comment.
A total of 41 residents of Barangay 183, Zone 20 in Villamor, Pasay City, and Magallanes Village, Makati, filed the petition against Meralco, Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal (NAIA) 3 administrator Manila International Airport Authority and the barangay chairman and council members of Barangay 183 last November, claiming the EMF and extreme low frequency (ELF) generated by the 115-kilovolt wires could lead to diseases such as "cancer, leukemia in children, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, miscarriages, headaches, memory loss and insomnia."
Petitioners cited a section of Presidential Decree 856, or the Code of Sanitation of the Philippines, which states that "high-tension transmission lines shall never pass overhead or underground of residential areas."
However, the court said petitioners failed to specify the environmental damage or threat from the operation of the power lines which will supply electricity to NAIA-3.
"There is admittedly a glaring absence of any allegation directed against violation of petitioners’ right to a balanced and healthful ecology (or the right to health, as insisted by petitioners) and the purported environmental damage arising from the installation and energization of Meralco’s sub-transmission lines," the decision read.
The petitioners presented several studies to back up claims, especially on EMF and ELF relation to higher risk of acquiring leukemia, but the court said such studies were inconclusive.
"At best, the data gathered are purely statistical in nature with no scientific evidence or conclusion as to whether the leukemia suffered by the subjects had been caused initially by their exposure to EMF-ELF or the direct impression of some other factor, environmental or otherwise," the decision read.
The court added that petitioners also failed to substantiate claims that the electric posts were tilting on the direction of the houses, and that the wires were strung too close to houses.
"During the preliminary conference, petitioners could not state with certainty the distance of the electric wire from the house of one of the petitioners, let alone show the alleged tilting of the posts or the consequential damage to the drainage system," the decision said.
Meanwhile, the court accepted evidence submitted by Meralco indicating that the power lines emit a magnetic field of 16.7 milliGauss (mG), way below the 833mG exposure limit set by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection that has been adopted by the Department of Health (DoH).
The court also noted that Meralco has obtained clearances and compliance certificates from DoH, Pasay City government, Department of Environment and Natural Resouces and other agencies before pushing through with the project.
"The construction of the poles and the energization of the sub-transmission lines are far from unauthorized or unlawful. In fact, they are more of a necessity than anything else," the decision read.
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