Responding to Climate Change a necessity, says PGMA
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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today stressed that development and economic growth must be alongside
environment protection.
In her message at the Lions Club 61st Multiple District Convention this morning at the Araneta Coliseum, the
President said the theme of the Convention “Move to grow: Responding to Global Climate Change,” is very
timely as climate change has become the most pressing issue not only in the country but the whole world.
“Responding to climate change is not an option but a necessity because we are an archipelago,” she said.
The Philippines, according to the Chief Executive is not a climate change maker but a climate change taker
since the country’s carbon emission is only 1.6 tons compared to other countries that emit six tons annually.
The country, she further explained is a climate taker because of its geographical location—the western Pacific,
where typhoons come from.
The President said all the typhoons that enter Asia enter the Philippines first with full force and fury.
“That is why in Asia, the Philippines is one of the top most vulnerable countries and in the world we are the
number nine most vulnerable country to natural disasters,” she said.
Stressing the need to protect the environment, the President said: “We have a moral obligation to the next
generations to protect the environment and to mitigate climate change brought not by us but by the abuse of the
entire humanity.”
Thus, she said when she became President, her priorities included environment protection while lifting the lives
of the poor. This can be gleaned from her 10-point pro-poor agenda—BEAT THE ODDS.
Through the Green Philippines program, the President said “we can have a growing economy and we can have
a green growing economy—and fighting the effects of climate change.”
“There must be a healthy balance between development and conservation,” she said. The Arroyo
administration, she added, came up with landmark environment protection laws such as the Biofuels Act,
Renewable Energy Act as well as the creation of a Climate Change Commission among others.
The President said adaptation and mitigation were the important means of the Arroyo administration in fighting
climate change or reducing risks and reducing the effects of climate change.
Thus, she urged businesses to be environment-friendly by building environment-friendly buildings with less use
of aircon, and buildings with garden roofs.
In agriculture, she said rain water must be saved for irrigation purposes during dry season and for risk
reduction, vulnerable residents in risk areas must be relocated.
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Geriatric health center part of PGMA legacy
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The country’s first-ever National Center for Geriatric Health (NCGH) is now providing specialized services for the
elderly many of them belonging to the marginalized sector.
Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Charito Planas said this is part of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s
social safety net and health services program to attend to the special needs of the senior citizens who comprise
6 to 7 percent of the populace.
In a media briefing in Malacañang, Planas said the center will further promote geriatric health care as well as
push the country’s medical tourism industry.
Last Sunday, Planas said the President led the blessing and soft opening of the Dr. Eva Macaraeg-Macapagal
National Center for Geriatric Health (formerly Singian Hospital) along General Solano Street in Malacañang,
Manila.
NCGH chief Dr. Miguel Ramos Jr., who is also president of the Philippine Society of Geriatric Medicine, said the
center is now manned by a group of doctors, nurses, therapists, caregivers and other personnel with varied
specialization in geriatric care.
At present, Ramos said they provide outpatient, day-care and wellness services including social, education and
health programs for the elderly.
Later on, Ramos said the center will provide rehabilitation and in-patient program in the 50-bed capacity center.
This, he added, includes a home-care program where sick elderly patients get medical care right in their
residences.
Ramos said a respite care program will also be provided wherein elderly patients will be temporarily housed at
the center to provide a short respite for their caregivers.
He said the center caters primarily to the marginalized sector and will pioneer a synchronized role in developing
national geriatric development programs.
Ramos said they are also planning in establishing a school at the center that will offer post-graduate training for
geriatric health care providers.
He said they are hoping for the enactment of House Bill No. 6245 that will provide state support to the Dr. Eva
Macaraeg-Macapagal National Center for Geriatric Health (NCGH) and ensure the sustainability of its
operations.
As part of providing social safety nets for the elderly, the President signed last February Republic Act No. 9994
expanding the benefits and privileges of senior citizens that include the expanded coverage of the list of goods
and services entitled to the 20 percent discount and exemption from the 12 percent value-added tax (VAT).
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DENR, mining industry cite PGMA’s fruitful environmental policies
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President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was publicly conferred today the “Minero” Award, a significant tribute from the
private mining sector, during a ceremony in Manila where she also received special honors for her policy
initiatives that produced milestones and major achievements in environmental governance.
At the Testimonial Lunch and Retro Seminar on Key Accomplishments on Environmental Governance organized
by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) at the Manila Hotel, the President was
singularly cited for her effort in revitalizing the Philippine mining industry.
The Minero award was the latest gesture from the mining sector in recognizing the President’s role in the hefty
growth of the industry that has enjoyed massive investments inflow since 2004.
In an earlier event this year in Malacañang, Benjamin Philip Romualdez president of the Chamber of Mines of
the Philippines, also credited President Arroyo with the improved mining industry outlook that he said was
expected to sustain its double digit growth for the year.
Romualdez said during the Presidential Mineral Industry Environmental Award (PMIEA) last February that the
President’s decisions and policies have helped in the unprecedented growth and sustainability of the industry.
During the Manila Hotel affair, DENR Secretary Horace Ramos gave the President a copy of the Environmental
Legacy Brochure Part 1 wherein the mining sector documented the numerous milestones and achievements of
her administration in environmental sustainability.
The Environmental Legacy, a 22-page text and pictorial was also distributed to participants and industry
stakeholders at the Manila Hotel event.
In other environmental concerns, Ramos cited in his message that the Arroyo administration has reforested
244,022 hectares which was supported by an outlay in 2009 of P1.5 billion, which Ramos said was “the biggest
in the annals of Philippine forestry.”
“We have established 25 protected areas, encompassing 1 million hectares in all, raising the total to 106 areas
and 3.46 million hectares,” Ramos said.
“We have reduced the total suspended particulates in Metro Manila’s air from 162 micrograms per normal cubic
meter down to 134; We have set up 6,750 materials recovery facilities for 7,680 barangays and raised the
number of sanitary landfills to 30 with 42 more under construction—dramatically improving the capacity of our
solid waste management,” Ramos added.
The Arroyo administration, the DENR chief said, has also completed the geo-hazard assessment of 91 percent
of our cities and municipalities and produced 835 geo-hazard maps covering 86 percent of the archipelago.
“And we have enacted more environmental laws in the last 10 years than in any other decade of our history,”
Ramos added.
“These undertakings—along with other regular activities enacted as the lead agency in implementing the Green
Philippines Program—emphasize our comprehensive, integrated and sustainable approach to our
constitutional mandate of advancing the right of every Filipino toward a balanced and healthful ecology in accord
with the rhythm and harmony of nature,” Ramos stated.
He said the 22,000-strong DENR workforce is humbled that these (achievements in environmental governance)
have not gone unnoticed by the international community, as evidenced by the most recent recognition of
President Arroyo’s innovative leadership in protecting oceans and preserving biodiversity in the Coral Triangle.”
Ramos said that the environmental legacy that is being passed on to the next administration and to future
generations “exists all around us--- in our forests, watersheds, biodiversity and other natural treasures.”
“Beyond taking pride in this legacy, let us value, protect and building upon it,” Ramos said.
According to published studies, the Philippines is one of the world's highly mineralized countries, with untapped
mineral wealth estimated at more than $840 billion. But it only begun to make good in the mining sector after
2004 when the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the 1995 Mining Act, thereby allowing up to 100
percent foreign-owned companies to invest in large-scale exploration, development, and utilization of minerals,
oil, and gas.
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PGMA’s Coral Triangle Initiative lauded anew
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President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) was singled out by World Wildlife Fund
president Jose Maria Lorenzo Tan as an outstanding regional master plan that embraces stakeholder and
participative processes as essential building blocks.
“Democracy is its foundation,” Tan said.
Tan was among several speakers in today’s testimonial lunch and retro-seminar on key accomplishments on
environmental governance held at the Manila Hotel. Participants were from the Department of Environment and
Natural Resources, the different bureaus of DENR, people’s organizations and non-government organizations
(NGOs) involved in the environment sector and multilateral funding institutions.
Tan said the Coral Triangle Initiative is one “visionary program that pushes us beyond science, towards
sustainability, at meaningful scale.”
“In the spirit of accountability, it reminds us that we must make a difference in the quality of people’s lives,” he
said.
CTI, according to Tan is different in that it recognizes that governance is a shared responsibility of government
and civil society. It opens the door, he said, to private sector investment and its key characteristic is the formula
for sustainable revenues designed to deliver quantifiable economic, social and environmental benefit for the
long term. “That is crucial,” he stressed.”
More importantly, according to Tan, CTI embraces the reality of climate change. In that sense, it anticipates a
climate-defined future, defining the framework for conservation and management of the human footprint for
decades to come, he said.
Tan spoke of the numerous unresolved environmental challenges which can’t be effectively managed by a
single administration.
“These are land use, forestry and watershed, trans-boundary collaboration, infrastructure and population, which
are “Solomonic tasks,” Tan explained.
“Like all marriages, environmental governance is a work in progress. As long as both parties remain committed
to keep working at it, day to day, year to year, many things remain possible,” he said.
“In the Coral Trial Initiative, the Arroyo government has helped create a platform for hope. It is up to us now to
make it happen,” Tan said.
Last month, President Arroyo also received the Teddy Roosevelt International Conservation Award from the
prestigious Washington DC-based donor group, International Conservation Caucus Foundation (ICCF), for her
CTI initiatives.
Another speaker, Nely Alzula, president of the Kapit Bisig Farmers Association Inc. of Barangay Sta. Catalina,
Atimonan, Quezon thanked the President and the DENR for providing rural folks with the proper implements to
protect the watersheds and other natural resources that have been prone to abuse by people.
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