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MANILA, Philippines -- Amid the series of demolitions of informal settler communities in Metro Manila, retired Chief Justice Reynato Puno said Saturday that the country’s courts should look to protecting the rights of the "roofless, shirtless and the shoeless."
Speaking at the general assembly of the National Union of Public Lawyers at the University of the Philippines, Puno said it is time for courts to stop clinging to the "traditional concept that socioeconomic rights could not be demanded from the government."
Puno cited the decision of the Supreme Court of South Africa, which in 2000 ruled in favor of a group of homeless people led by Irene Grootboom that was demanding state support for shelter after being evicted from private land.
"This was a very difficult case, there was no precedent whether socioeconomic rights are demandable from the government," he said.
"We know that socio-economic rights will give rise to budgetary implications, but the South Africa Supreme Court said it is not a bar to their justiceability," Puno added.
He said the landmark decision led courts in other countries to recognize the "demandability of socioeconomic rights" such as labor-related rights, right to housing, education, food and cultural rights.
While acknowledging that all these rights are guaranteed in the Constitution, “they are no better than paper rights because the people can't go to any government authority and demand that their socioeconomic rights be implemented," Puno said.
"And we know that a right that is not remedied is not a right at all," he added.
Puno, who served in the high tribunal from 2006 to 2010, is credited for putting in place novel rules of procedures such as the Writ of Kalikasan and Writ of Amparo in an effort to strengthen the defense of human rights.
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