Legarda on Roxas

How about a basic classroom lesson on climate change after an acrimonious debate Sunday night?
Vice presidential candidate Loren Legarda told reporters here that she was willing to “educate” her rival, Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, on climate change issues, after the latter apparently belittled her environmental advocacy during the ABS-CBN “Harapan” vice presidential debate.
Legarda quipped that Roxas might have been taking a snack or could have left the Senate session hall early, during the countless times she delivered privilege speeches on the warming planet.
“Climate change is not just an election issue. My advocacy for climate change started in 1998. It is a timeless, universal issue,” she said Tuesday during a press conference.
Two million trees
“I am willing to teach him about the needs of the farmers and fisherfolk. I am willing to give him copies of my speeches on climate change in the United Nations and the Senate. I am willing to sit down and teach him, so that he could understand that El Niño is connected to hunger,” said Legarda, chair of the Senate committees on agriculture, and on health.
She claims to have planted over two million trees under her Green Philippines’ campaign for which she was recognized by the UN in 2001. She is also the UN Asia Pacific regional champion for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction.
At Sunday’s debate held at La Consolacion College in Manila, Roxas had questioned Legarda’s priorities in making the environment her campaign advocacy, noting that the Philippines accounted for less than 1 percent of the Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission that is chiefly blamed for global warming.
Legarda had said that climate change was a gut issue, as the Philippines was one of 10 countries considered most vulnerable to disasters related to climate change.
Directly affects people
The El Niño-caused drought that damaged crops and the floods that killed many people during Storms “Ondoy” and “Pepeng,” showed that climate change was an issue that directly affected the people, she had said.
“This shows the ignorance and elitist nature of other people who don’t understand climate change, protecting the environment, banning cutting down of forests, rehabilitation of irrigation facilities, and preparedness for coming disasters to lessen tragedies caused by the changing climate,” Legarda said.
She called on her closest VP rival to go down to the grassroots and ask farmers, fishermen and ordinary folk about the effects of last year’s cyclones Ondoy and Pepeng and this year’s El Niño.
“To ignore climate change is to neglect the poor,” said Legarda.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer

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