Senator Loren Legarda is a crusader for Mother Nature, enacting many laws protecting the environment. Photo by Pinggot Zulueta.

MANILA, Philippines — It is very rare to see Senator Loren Legarda in pink. People are so used to seeing her in crisp white polo shirts and blue jeans, with her hair tied in a neat ponytail.

But on that morning of our interview, the lawmaker was garbed in a dainty pink wraparound blouse and gray skirt. She has also bid goodbye  to her signature long locks, chopping it off after the elections to sport a shorter do. Looks like some things have indeed changed with Loren.

However, there is one specific change that the senator is happier about these days. In the global pursuit for green and sustainable development, Loren Legarda is changing the game.

Recently, Loren, as chair of the Senate Committees on Climate Change and Foreign Relations, convened a consultative meeting for Asian parliamentarians to discuss actions that parliamentarians can take to increase the resilience of Asian countries to disasters and climate change. The meeting focused on Disaster Risk Reduction and was held in cooperation with the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and the Asian Network of Parliamentarians
for Population and Development.

In this gathering, Loren advocated the need to change the game.

“We are ushering our planet to its death. The signs of the times are clear, but are left unheeded. Disasters, climate crises have revealed our social vulnerabilities. Poverty, weak governance, ecosystems decline, vulnerable rural livelihoods, climate change, all have put both rich and poor in greater peril, just like what happened during Ondoy,’’ Loren says.

Even when she was a lone voice crusading for the environment in the Senate, Loren has never given up speaking for the cause she loves most. “In my first term, I started talking about it and nobody cared
to listen or seemed to understand. But I was persistent and I delivered so many privilege speeches here and in various fora in the world, until the Climate Change Act was finally enacted into law,’’
she recalls. “These are everyday issues na naiintindihan ng tao. Dahil sa hindi natin ginalang ‘yan at walang warning system at biglang ang lakas-lakas ng ulan, binaha tayo ng husto, ang ibang tao namatay pa. Mayaman o mahirap, nasa tuktok ng bubong at humihingi ng tulong.’’

Loren created the standing committee and the oversight committee on climate change in the Philippine Senate, that address climate change as a national priority. She also authored a climate change bill that  aims to mainstream climate change and disaster risk reduction
in development policies and plans, including poverty reduction and education strategies.

Today, Loren remains relentless, urging for change in the way people think and act, to change their attitudes towards Mother Earth.

“We must rethink and change our concept of development. Our development is one that chokes us because we have poor air quality that brings our children to the hospital because of pulmonary
and upper respiratory ailments. It’s a challenge to redefine, to rethink development to kind and quality of life we deserve,’’ Loren continues.

In this 60 Minutes tete-a-tete, Senator Loren Legarda shares with us how life goes on after a very exasperating elections; how she does not feel alone anymore in speaking for Mother Earth; why she cut her hair; why she is not going back to being a media person anymore; and why she continues to be optimistic even if to some people, she is harboring a utopian vision. (Ivy Lisa F. Mendoza)

STUDENTS AND CAMPUSES BULLETIN (SCB): Your documentary on climate change “Buhos,’’ which was directed by Brillante Mendoza, was distributed to schools. What is the feedback so far?
LOREN B. LEGARDA (LBL): Very nice. And it is shown for free in SM Cinemas, all over the country. We have given them to about 6,000 national high schools. We will also be giving to elementary schools,
and to local government units (LGUs).

SCB: What do you wish to achieve by distributing it to schools. Do you actually think this will change the mindset of the young about the environment?
LBL: It’s a cliché yes, but the youth will really inherit the earth. The youth is our future. While we educate parliamentarians and we enlighten adults to change, parang paradigm shift in our lifestyle, to ingrain it in the youth as early as now. They can actually live it as early as now, we don’t have to wait for them to learn the wrong things or to be ignorant about environmental awareness
and the climate change adaptation and even disaster risk reduction (DRR).

Young people have to realize as early as now that we are one of the 10 most vulnerable countries in the world. The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) came out with a mortality risk index and the Philippines ranked 12th among those who are most at risk of dying during disaster because of the frequency of disasters.

SCB: Which country ranked first? Bangladesh?
LBL: Bangladesh, despite being vulnerable like us, proves that you don’t need a big budget to reduce risk. Bangladesh was hit by a cyclone more than 10 years ago, 140,000 people died because they were completely unprepared and did not integrate DRR into their national agenda. They learned about it, they become vigilant because of the laws. Then they did something low tech by having early warning systems before a cyclone would come. It doesn’t have to be expensive radars or equipment, they used flags!

In 1970, a cyclone killed 300,000 people; in 1991, 138,000 people were killed. Three years ago, a cyclone killed only 3,400 people because they were prepared. The volunteers used megaphones and flags. With the limited resources, they had megaphones used by volunteers on bicycles and they had red and green flags for warning. Perhaps during Ondoy and Pepeng, if we had early warning systems...

SCB: Didn’t we have warning systems?
LBL: Totally none, because the amount of rainfall that fell in just a few hours was totally unexpected too. But still sometimes we know about it but what do we do about it? Do we actually move the people out? Do we put riprapping in mountain sides so there’s no soil erosion? There are long-term solutions like don’t touch our mountains, plant more trees, don’t illegally log so the soil will not erode. Or at least follow the local land use plans and make your structures, whether schools, hospitals, or homes it should have structural integrity. And then we should have early warning systems.

SCB: Disaster risk reduction is a big word. What does it really mean?
LBL: Disaster risk reduction, simply put,means saving lives, livelihood, and saving our future. It may sound sometimes like a technical, scientific term, and it is the challenge of leaders like us to communicate that. Hindi madali because it competes with other issues but when you look at it, it’s a cost-cutting issue, which is connected with education, with agriculture.

SCB: When you speak about preparedness, what do you mean by it?
LBL: It means as simple as early warning system, low tech or high tech. It can be through text messaging, flags, or radio messages. It can be through knocking on doors, or bells, or megaphones. It can be long-term prevention through massive reforestation, respect and implementation of environmental laws. It can be by unclogging drainages, dredging rivers, not throwing plastics and bottles in bays and rivers.

Environment as sexy issue
SCB: Do people listen more seriously now?
LBL: It takes time. In my first term, I started talking about it and nobody cared to listen or seemed to understand. But I was persistent and I delivered so many privilege speeches here and in various fora in the world, until the Climate Change Act was finally enacted into law.

There is a greater consciousness now, even the Senate President has filed his own bill on survival fund and that’s for climate change adaptation. So, I think those are great improvements in terms of people who have been converted to climate allies.

SCB: Do you believe that you are getting through the people?
LBL: There are short, medium and long term goals. That’s why I appeal to media people. I know it is easier for media to write about jueteng, or about the love life of P-Noy. But I’m unrelenting and I’m persevering because this is a noble crusade. If you save one life, one family, one community, its life has been different because you actually change the mindset of the government.

In 2007 when I first talked about DRR, it was a completely new concept and no one interpellated. I continue to do that and now, media is gaining interest. These are everyday issues na naiintindihan ng tao.

Dahil sa hindi natin ginalang ‘yan at walang warning system at biglang ang lakas-lakas ng ulan, binaha tayo ng husto, ang ibang tao namatay pa. Mayaman o mahirap, nasa tuktok ng bubong at humihingi ng tulong.

Sa needs assessment ng World Bank, over P200 billion was needed to rehabilitate after Ondoy and Pepeng. So imagine, P227 billion that means a lot, that means food for the very poor, schoolbuildings and classrooms, vitamins for the children and medicines, books for children. So kung pinaghandaan natin, hindi ko sinasabing walang mamamatay o walang masisira, but as other countries have shown, it could have been reduced.

SCB: What do you think can make the issue of environment sexy to the public and the government?
LBL: After Ondoy and Pepeng, bigla tayong nagka awareness. We’re a very reactionary people. Kapag may scandal, it’s on the papers. When a new scandal comes, we forget it.

SCB: Don’t you feel alone fighting for this cause in the Senate?
LBL: Not anymore now because people attend my hearings already.

SCB: You mean they didn’t attend your hearings before?
LBL: Oo, dati mag-isa lang ako (laughs). And before nobody would interpellate.And before there was no climate change committee.

SCB: Is this the effect of Ondoy?
LBL: Maybe. It was a wake up call.

SCB: Is it still possible to be a single-issue environmentalist in this day and age?
LBL: We should not be a single-issue environmentalist because it’s a cross-cutting issue. It’s connected to agriculture and food and our water. Security is also connected with that. It’s also connected with our education, because we must start with basic education. There is a law that incorporates environment to educational systems from basic education. It is connected to our health and sanitation because if we have a dirty environment and if we don’t follow environmental laws, then obviously health care will be bad. I don’t think we can isolate the environment issue from other national concerns.

Uniting paliamentarians
SCB: Do you see that your laws are implemented, even if it’s not part of your job?
LBL: I make sure that they are implemented. The Solid Waste Management Law, for instance, we go to poor barangays to teach women who are otherwise jobless or may want additional income. It’s nothing new, it’s done by many NGOs but we don’t just author the law, we teach them that there is a law and we implement it.

SCB: What happened during the parliamentary meeting? Was there an agreement the nations signed on?
LBL: It was a three-day meeting where parliamentarians from 10 Asian countries agreed to first acknowledge that disasters abound in our region, that Asia is the hardest hit. But because of that, we must establish laws, policies, programs that would address DRR. We must use our power and influence as parliamentarians and even reach out to the regions and to the international level.

We also agreed to work out that at least one percent from our national budget should go to the disaster reduction effort. We agreed that we will utilize, not only governmental funding but also innovating financing mechanisms, possibly a debt for disaster reduction swap agreement. The UNISDR, that espouses and advocates disaster reduction, can be a focus of this.

SCB: But the destruction of the environment is a factor of development too?
LBL: It’s good to have growth for progress and development but what kind of development have we really achieved in our lifetime?

A development that actually chokes us because we have poor air quality that brings our children to the hospital because of pulmonary and upper respiratory ailments? What kind of development has our society embraced? You look at Metro Manila, our esteros, canals, and rivers are full of garbage. Is that the kind of development we actually want?

Our forests are degraded, diminishing and our corals, it’s been talked about that it is fast disappearing. That’s the kind of development we have.

So the development that we had all these years has not really been ideal, it’s not been sustainable. And we must reassess this because this is a development imposed on us after the industrial revolution by so-called developed countries. It’s a challenge to redefine, to rethink development to the kind and quality of life we deserve.

SCB: Are these parliamentarians also adapting measures to prevent climate change or is climate change an irreversible reality we have to live with now?
LBL: In a country like the Philippines, where we are less than one percent emitter of toxic emission, we have to learn adaptation. Climate change is here, it’s maybe irreversible, but it is up to us to learn, to limit our emissions.

SCB: Do these parliamentarians have enough clout to push China and the US to reduce their emissions? Kasi kung wala rin, we’re all learning to adapt while they keep on destroying the planet?
LBL: That’s why there are meetings to bring down the emissions of developed nations and for developing countries with vulnerable population like the Philippines to ask compensation from developed nations who have polluted the world. That’s why we are seeking for climate justice for them to establish maybe a global survival fund to be set up by developed nations to be accessed by developing countries who are most vulnerable for projects for the poorest of the poor who have been affected by this. As we speak, 12 months after Ondoy and Pepeng there are still families in Rizal, in Zambales, in Pampanga who are still living in tents.

SCB: Until now?
LBL: Yes. Imagine, 12 months after, naka isang Pasko na tayo, magpapangalawang Pasko na tayo. We exchange gifts, we put up our trees and parols, still, these people have no sanitation and no running water. They are still in their tent cities in their temporary abodes, in evacuation centers, 12 months after Ondoy. Life has gone on for all of us. But what have they done about it? They are still scouting for areas where they can permanently settle.

I visited an area called Lupang Arenda in Taytay and there are half a million individuals on this island made of garbage in the middle of Laguna de Bay. An earthquake can actually displace these people and can be eaten up by the bay.

SCB: What’s the government doing?
LBL: (Giggles) They’re holding meetings...

SCB: You’re the one from the outside looking at everything, do you feel like it’s going to be an uphill climb implementing all of these?
LBL: Yes, realistically it’s an uphill battle because it may not be a priority of leaders of government because of apathy, ignorance, lack of understanding, or simply wrong or different prioritization. So, it’s an uphill climb not only in the Philippines but in many other nations. And even if there are laws in place, that we have enacted very important legislation, we have the Clean Air Act, we have the Clean Water Act, we have the Solid Waste Management law, we have the Climate Change Act, we have the Disaster Risk Reduction Act, but then we are very poor in effective implementation of law. It doesn’t take government alone, we need really to encourage people to follow our laws.

Learnings from the election
SCB: A typical Philippine election leaves such a large carbon footprint. How do you reconcile that with your own environmental advocacy?
LBL: Our tarpaulins are biodegradable. In three months, they degrade. ‘Yun ang ininsist ko sa suppliers.

SCB: What’s life like after the election? What lessons did you learn from that experience?
LBL: First of all, every election makes you in touch more with issues and with the people. Every election is a validation of how the people regard you. Whe it was a validation that they wanted me in the Senate. I lost for Vice President, I accept my fate and my destiny. The people want me in the
Senate, perhaps, and not for that position. You have to accept it. No hard feelings, even if there are hard feelings, because it’s expensive, it’s tiring, it’s painful to lose.

But you have to accept it, that’s life. You win some, you lose some. You can’t be on top forever. It’s a humbling experience.

It makes you in touch with reality, with your weaknesses and strong points, makes you do introspection with what went wrong, how it went wrong, what you’ve learned. Maybe you can do better next time. There’s a realization of what is for you and what is not for you. After the elections, less than 24 hours later, I conceded and I moved on.

SCB: At nagpagupit ka!
LBL: Nagpagupit ako (laughs)! Para less water, kasi ‘yun ‘yung time na nagpipila para sa tubig sa Malabon (laughs). Nabawasanang boto ko, bawasan din ang buhok ko (laughs)!

SCB: Was it that stressful?
LBL: Every election and campaign is stressful because it is expensive and it can be emotionally taxing. Even if I am perceived to be a strong person, I get hurt when there are unfounded, baseless, and malicious black propaganda. But then, you can’t really please everybody all of the time. You know that there are evil people in the world and that they exist. You just have to look the other way and do
your job and what is good for the people. In the end, wala na ang black propaganda kasi wala ng campaign! I’ve really learned to just focus on my work and love the people who love me, appreciate those who support me and understand my work, and marginalize or ignore the evildoers and detractors.

SCB: Do you think that if you didn’t focus on the environment as your main issue, people would have understood you more?
LBL: The environment was not the only issue during the campaign. But it is what I’m known for and associated with. But I’m not doing it for political gain. If I’m here just to gain public attention, I would go for the more popular and headline-hogging issues. But because this is a crusade, whether they listen or not, whether the environment is at the top of the surveys or not, I won’t change. I believe it’s a cross-cutting issue, it’s a matter of survival, I will persist and continue to do it. It’s not the only thing I’m doing, but it’s one of my priorities. A person should not just work because it’s a popular issue.

SCB: You said in another interview that you felt that because you’re a strong woman, they felt the need to tag you as insincere. Do you really feel that way?
LBL: Minsan kasi kapag babae, masipag or courageous, kung anu-ano ang sinasabi. Pero kapag lalake ang aggressive o focused? Magaling siya, masipag siya! Kapag babae ang focused, ambisyosa siya.

SCB: Did you find gender being used as an issue surprising,considering that we’ve had already had two woman presidents?
LBL: I’m not saying that gender was an issue, I’m saying that there’s still sometimes the mindset that if a woman knows what she wants and gets things done, she is sometimes perceived as overly ambitious. But if a man who is unprepared for political office runs, they don’t criticize him as much.

SCB: So you were expecting that attack, in a way?
LBL: Yeah. It doesn’t really bother me anymore. It was my fourth national campaign, so you anticipate those attacks.

SCB: Are you friends with Senator Mar?
LBL: I’m friends with everybody. I hope that political battles won’t affect friendships. But I have not seen him. You ask him too (laughs).

After Mayor Binay won, I greeted him and I’ve been seeing him in some hearings and I speak with him. He appreciates that I conceded to him less than 24 hours after the May 10 elections. I’ve seen him a couple of times in the past six months, and we’ve been very warm with each other and we work together.

A full life
SCB: Do you see yourself going back to the media like Noli de Castro?
LBL: Maybe not. I was there since 18 until I was 38. I ran for the Senate when I was 38, I’m turning 51 in January. I like what I’m doing not only in the Senate but in the UN as well. I produce documentaries for public consumption, using my talents in production and the media.

But to do a daily show and the news? Maybe not. I was doing that for 20 years, even on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve. Maybe to do a humanitarian documentary to move people to action, maybe that. But to have a full time media career, perhaps not.

SCB: Ayaw mo na?
LBL: It’s not that I don’t like it. It was the career where I was born and I’m passionate about it up to now. But I see that I can do much in the work that I’m doing now and I want to see the laws that I’ve implemented work and I think that we should go beyond the Philippines and beyond the region, and that is where my UN work takes me.

SCB: So why do you think others go back to media?
LBL: Maybe they realize that is their calling.

SCB: What a diplomatic answer! (laughs)
LBL: (laughs)

Beautiful dreamer
SCB: What is your dream for the country?
LBL: I want my life and laws to come full circle. This is a problem of society, and I style the bill, enacted into law, fund the law, implement the law, and lives are saved. Life is improved. People children are fed. Nutrition is better. Schools are better equipped.

There is a higher level of literacy. Children are cared for in better health centers. When that happens, the environment is cleaner, people no longer throw garbage in our waterways. The Philippines will be
clean, green, and blue. When we’ve achieved that, then we know that the quality of life is better and the future of our children would be brighter.

SCB: Have you always been a dreamer?
LBL: I’m an Aquarius. I like to dream. You start with a dream. When I was a child, I always quoted this Hallmark saying “Hold fast dreams, for when dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.”

That was when I was 10 years old and I’m turning 51 in January. I’ve not lost that idealism, that child in me, that always aspires for a cleaner, greener, and bluer future for our nation. That is what drives me, that is my passion. That is why I work for the UN, for disaster risk reduction, to make it a well-known and understood advocacy. I work for the Senate and I enact the laws, and I work for the people in the grassroots and I go around the country to talk to teachers and students, to indigenous peoples, to local government officials, to everybody.

SCB: Don’t you get tired?
LBL: I get tired. When I get tired, I sleep (laughs), I rest and have my quiet time. I do yoga or I hit the treadmill. I do sit-ups or I simply sit and read something different from what we’re talking about. I read interior design magazines, agriculture magazines, art magazines, gardens, gossip columns. No, I don’t read gossip columns (laughs).

SCB: You’re always so focused, so when do you loosen up?
LBL: I’m always loose (laughs)! Mukha lang hindi.

SCB: You always look so perfect. Palaging ayos ang hair mo…
LBL: Akala mo lang ‘yun. Kaya nga hindi na ngayon (laughs).

SCB: How do you see life ahead, now that you’re a ‘Golden Girl’?
LBL: Maybe I should list 51 things I would like to do for the next how many years I have left in my life.

One of that is that I want to paint again. The Chinese ambassador gave me a beautiful complete painting set, and I’m looking for a teacher of Chinese painting in watercolor.

Another is perhaps to do more frequent, regular exercise. Perhaps another one is to plant more indigenous trees and embark on a nationwide, school-based vegetable garden program. Another thing I’d like to do is to create an institute for green growth, a think tank for various institutions for sustainable development and climate change.

I’d like to promote indigenous fabrics more. Abel cloth, banana fiber, piña, mga habi ng katutubo. We had an exhibit recently at the Senate just to bring attention.

I’m working with the National Museum to have a permanent wing of the National Museum on textiles. We’ll call it “Habi”. I’ve done that before and I’m the author of a fabric law which is so important and
promotes the use of indigenous fabrics.

SCB: Is there something that you’ve not done before that you want to do? Something like skydiving?
LBL: I want to live long (laughs). Nothing like that. Nagawa ko na yun dati sa “Inside Story”. They made me do hang gliding. Nag rock climbing ako sa Montalban.

Nag motorcycle ako sa Mindanao, umangkas ako sa mamang nakahubad papuntang MILF camp (laughs)! Nakita lang ako. Malayo pa kasi ‘yung lalakaran at nahihilo na ako. Buntis pala ako. So iniwan akong mag-motorsiklo kasama nung mamang hindi ko kilala (laughs)!

SCB: In short, you are done with the thrill seeking…
LBL: Tama na ‘yun (laughs)! I want to focus on environment, arts, and culture. I want to focus on work. I want to be able to help with the establishment of green schools and even green houses. I want to use solar power, recycle water. I just want this to be a clean, better world to live in for all of us.