Judge Rebecca A. Guillen-Ubaña, DCL, an alumna of the Doctor of Civil Law program of the Graduate School of Law, is pushing for the creation of “green benches” or courts focused on environment cases, arising from her dissertation under the supervision of Judge Charito M. Macalintal-Sawali, DCL.
Guillen-Ubaña found that in the current practice, 120 designed environmental courts are part of the 1,875 second-level courts. Unfortunately, the current practice is to merely designate courts as environmental courts. The proponent, using the Sustainability Theory and Rights-Based Approach, pushed for a legal framework to establish the green benches in the country, which is increasingly beset with environmental cases that need to be handled by courts with appropriate capacity to weigh complex issues and scientific evidence.
The proposal was submitted to the Senate on behalf of Guillen-Ubaña by Graduate of School of Law officials led by Dean Atty. Jacqueline O. Lopez-Kaw, DCL and Regent fr. Dexter A. Austria, O.P., SThD.
Guillen-Ubaña is the Presiding Judge of Metro Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 40. She is part of the Doctor of Civil Law Class of 2025.