Several minors, represented by their parents, filed a complaint (in the form of a taxpayers' class suit) against the Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources to require him to ensure the "full benefit, use and enjoyment of the natural resource treasure that is the country's virgin tropical forests" by "their generation as well as generations yet unborn." The lower court dismissed the complaint. The petitioners appealed to the Supreme Court to question the lower court decision.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Petitioner minors:

This case, however, has a special and novel element. Petitioners minors assert that they represent their generation as well as generations yet unborn. We find no difficulty in ruling that they can, for themselves, for others of their generation and for the succeeding generations, file a class suit. Their personality to sue in behalf of the succeeding generations can only be based on the concept of intergenerational responsibility insofar as the right to a balanced and healthful ecology is concerned. Such a right, as hereinafter expounded, considers the "rhythm and harmony of nature." Nature means the created world in its entirety.9 Such rhythm and harmony indispensably include, inter alia, the judicious disposition, utilization, management, renewal and conservation of the country's forest, mineral, land, waters, fisheries, wildlife, off-shore areas and other natural resources to the end that their exploration, development and utilization be equitably accessible to the present as well as future generations. Needless to say, every generation has a responsibility to the next to preserve that rhythm and harmony for the full enjoyment of a balanced and healthful ecology. Put a little differently, the minors' assertion of their right to a sound environment constitutes, at the same time, the performance of their obligation to ensure the protection of that right for the generations to come.

https://lawphil.net/judjuris/juri1993/jul1993/gr_101083_1993.html#rnt17

Bangladeshi and Indian courts, as well as scholarly articles, have cited this case.

(found in ''Reclaiming Democracy: The Strategic Uses of Foreign and International Law by National Courts'' by Eyal Benvenisti, American Journal of International Law, April 2008, Volume 102, Number 2, p 251)