Gloria Arroyo's Speech on CLimate Change

I am not a fan of President Gloria Arroyo, but this among many of her speeches caught my attention in my favorite radio station some night ago. While listening to Kalikasan Vigilante, I heard this after the talk show. I wonder if this speech was ever broadcasted to the masses. At any rate, I feel the urge to share this with all of you. Please read on, it will be worth your time.


Tuesday, 12 May 2009
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s speech during the Regional Development Committee’s One Visayas Initiative on Climate Change Summit and signing of R.A. 9593 or the Tourism Act OF 2009


Dubhe Ballroom, Imperial Palace Waterpark Resort & Spa
Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu
May 12, 2009

Maraming salamat Secretary Atienza sa iyong pagpakilala sa akin.

To our members of the Senate, Senator Zubiri the majority leader and Dick Gordon the sponsor and author of the Tourism Law, the Tourism Act; to our several members of Congress who are here today either because they are from Cebu or because they are authors and sponsors of the Tourism Act -- but of course all the congressmen of Cebu are authors of the Tourism Act -- members of the Cabinet; chairpersons of the Regional Development Councils and the other members of the councils; the governors; city mayors; municipal mayors; other officials of the whole Visayas who are here today. To all of you, this is a wonderful day.

First to the authors, sponsors and co-authors of the Tourism Law, and the members of the tourism industry who are here today with us, congratulations! (applause)

To the local government officials in Regions VI, VII and VIII, for putting up this One Visayas Initiative, and to our NGO leaders Bebet, Tony and Father Jet and the other leaders who are here today, congratulations! (applause) for getting this very important summit together to act on an issue that threatens the well-being of our nation and our people, and an issue that if we address it properly will enhance the attractiveness of Central Philippines as a tourism destination. Congratulations also to you! (applause) That’s why I thought of putting the two events together because they are so closely link to each other. And it’s timely to have this event today not only because the tourism industry has been waiting for this law for so many years now but also because climate change is here. Human activity has caused it. Fossil fuels. Land use. Solid waste.

Although we can tell ourselves and be proud that with our total gas emissions constituting less than one percent of the total emissions from the whole world, the Philippines is not a climate maker, but we are a climate taker. Even if we say we contribute less than one percent to climate change, yet we suffer as much or maybe even more than climate makers because we are an archipelago. If climate change were to reach its tipping point Florida may lose some coastline, but we may lose entire islands. Weather patterns are changing. You in the Visayas only know too well how super typhoons like Frank killed hundreds of our countrymen and wrought damage worth hundreds of millions of pesos on public and private property. Because of climate change and the many things that happen that are not as predictable as they use to be.

Planning and implementation will be increasingly difficult. That is why this summit is so important because you have come up with your output on what you should do because of climate change and that becomes a blueprint moving forward even as planning and implementation become more difficult. I think we need not overstress, it must have been said yesterday over and over again, that climate change is bad for the Philippine economy. And it will be especially bad for the Visayan economy whose future is eco-tourism. So, we do not have much time. But we should find comfort in the thought that solutions exist today.

Humanity started climate change. It is humanity that can stop climate change. And the sooner we fix it the cheaper it will be. So, we have to work together. The framework to drive climate change effectively is largely present in the architecture of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol of 1997. That framework, the Kyoto Protocol and the Bali Plan of Action of 2007 have pointed out two strategies that must be simultaneously activated by all countries in response to climate change. The first is adaptation, where we apply strategies to cope with the effects of climate change as they hit us; or even before they do and the second is mitigation to significantly reduce greenhouse gases that we release.

Here in our country our reforestation efforts to have more trees absorb more carbon dioxide; our early warning systems, including coordinated action for rescue and rehabilitation in times of floods and other climate change-related activities; and even our training in alternative livelihood activities for people who use to earn their living from now degraded forests and mangrove areas -- all these are examples of adaptation.

We have likewise been involved in mitigation, and they are reflected in our laws: the Clean Air Act, the Solid Waste Management Act -- which I was honored to have signed as my very first law when I became President in 2001-- and the Clean Water Act. The Tourism Act today will likewise contribute to our efforts to reduce the effects of climate change by giving more teeth to our tourism jobs creation policy, which has a very strong environmental protection component. I was asking the various authors what they considered so important in the law and their contribution to it.

We have here two Deputy Speakers, Girlie Villarosa and Raul de Mar of Cebu. While riding in the plane with Raul Del Mar I asked Raul, “what do you think was your most important contribution?” -- because Raul authored one of the three bills in the House that eventually became the Tourism Act. I asked Raul, “what do you feel was your most important contribution?” And he said that it was strengthening the Department of Tourism in implementing the strategies -- that was his most important contribution. And then I asked Dick Gordon, who was my Secretary of Tourism and therefore that… and I remember when I told him why I wanted him to be Secretary of Tourism, I told him I want you to make a Subic out of the whole country. So he continued with that work. I asked him now, as we were signing, “so, Dick, what is the most important part of the law as far as you are concerned?” And he said it is the strengthening of the policy, the incentives in the tourism zones which will be administered by the Department of Tourism for the contribution of Raul del Mar and the strengthening of the infrastructure component.

And so, indeed, we will be having all kinds of tourism areas all over the country, but I am sure that as 55 percent of our tourists come to visit Central Philippines, I figure 55 percent of those tourism zones will also be in Central Philippines especially the Visayas and here in Cebu. (applause)

As mentioned by Mel Sarmiento -- who welcomed us and who was the one who called me to come and attend this conference -- in late December last year, I reorganized the Presidential Task Force on Climate Change with the use of a draft submitted to me by Tony Oposa. In that draft as per his recommendation… in that Executive Order, I made myself the chairperson. But the Task Force has 14 task groups for various concerns, and every task group is headed by a Cabinet member to draw up action plans and set targets for a specific area related to climate change. For instance, Secretary Atienza is the head of the Task Force on Solid Waste Management, also on protected areas, and that is why he goes around with me every Friday in order to communicate to all our local governments that the Solid Waste Management Law mandates every single barangay in the country to have a Materials Recovery Facility. Now, that’s not such a tall order really because depending on how simple or how elaborate you want your MRF to be it can be as cheap as less that 200,000 pesos or it can be as sophisticated as two million pesos.

And so, therefore, this is something we want every barangay to do. In fact, I will also like to take advantage of this occasion to thank the League of Municipalities because even as we speak they are now on a caravan all over the Philippines to communicate to all the mayors that they should help and assist their barangay in putting up Materials Recovery Facilities.

We have also task forces on fossil fuels, renewable energy and, of course, needless to say that Angie Reyes is in-charge of the energy-related task forces as well as DOTC Secretary Mendoza with regard to shifting from fossil fuels to other fuels. And part of the requirement of the task force is that we should really promote renewable energy which is a law that was sponsored by Migs Zubiri here, the two Juan Miguels, Juan Miguel Zubiri and my son Juan Miguel Arroyo. But when I said that the framework is largely in the U.N. Convention and the Kyoto Protocol there are still key remaining elements.

We still have to set new targets for the post 2010 period. We still have to establish suitable carbon markets. The carbon markets I have seen in the Philippines have been very well done. For instance, I have seen the Toyota reforest the Northern part of Sierra Madre using carbon credits. I have seen landfills being transformed into methane-driven power plants using carbon credits. Although may I add a caveat, this is not an excuse to put up new sanitary landfills. Let’s just clean up the old ones but instead of sanitary landfills, let us just concentrate on MRFs in every barangay. (applause)

We still have to formalize funding arrangements so that developing countries like us can meet the additional cost of low emission technology. We still have to reach agreements on administrative arrangements for the adaptation fund that the developed countries are supposed to help us with. And as far as the post Kyoto is concerned, the Philippines supports an 80 percent reduction of carbon emissions. (applause) In order for the world to agree to this, there is an urgent need to crop a new Climate Treaty that is viable in the long- term and binding under international law and we hope to do this in the forthcoming Copenhagen Conference. The decision to avoid dangerous climate change does not rest in the future but in today’s national and local governments and businesses including the tourism industry, the hotel industry including especially those in the Visayas.

We all have the opportunity to device replicable models to identify national vulnerability and build formulas for adaptation. Here in the Visayas, for instance, the world’s largest wet steam fields are right here in Leyte, in Negros Island, and tapping our geothermal sources has enabled us in fact not only in Negros Island but in several parts of the country, they have helped us to become 60 percent energy-sufficient. Likewise, biogases co-generation plants like in Negros Occidental can tap the waste product of sugarcane manufactured to produce energy instead of being left to rot and discharge more methane into the atmosphere. And since we’re talking about the Visayas and what the laws require there is an earlier law that also requires the municipalities, the coastal municipalities to set aside 15 percent of your waters for marine sanctuary. (applause)

The environment cannot take a back seat to economic development. There is no reason that job creation and a good, clean and sound environmental policy cannot exist. I think tourism, the kind of tourism that we have today shows that, because our tourism is very, very eco-friendly. So different from tourism in the days of old. I remember when I was a young activist we were all against tourism because of the sex tourism. But now I remember, on the other hand today, how times changed, there is a certain area in the country where the religious are against a casino. So they said… then the local officials say, but it creates jobs. So, the answer of the religious was, “why not create jobs through tourism?” See, because now the understanding of tourism is eco-tourism. So that is a best example of what we’re trying to say that caring for the environment is an important contribution to job creation.

That is why this One Visayas Initiative in the heart of our tourism region is significant and timely. It is led by local government executives through the Regional Development Councils. We have here Mel, our host Governor Gwen and Sally, and it has the support of the academe, private sector representatives, civil society as members and Father Jet comes from the church.

And as I see all of you coming here together to put this One Visayas Summit together on Climate Change, I am reminded that now is the time for pulling together and focusing on family and the community. Now is the time to initiate a new era of volunteerism and community spirit. Climate change adaptation and mitigation is not only a job of the government but also of religious and civic groups and nongovernmental organizations harnessing our people to engage in coordinated volunteer activities. Volunteer activities can focus on initiatives as cleaning up our environment; because trash is not only ugly it contributes to methane. Building parks because building parks build up greens, produce oxygen and reduces climate change, the same with planting trees. These are just as important as bringing comfort to the poor through food banks and bringing literacy to adults who cannot read.

So, I thank all of you for being here today. And I say to all of you, to our green legislators who love and promote eco-tourism, to our green LGUs, to our green NGOs and to our green industry in tourism, congratulations to all of you! (applause)