| PGMA's Speech during the Eco-minds Asia-Pacific Manila |
Grand Ballroom, Hotel Intercontinental Manila, Makati City, MM (27 October 2005) |
| Thank you, Secretary Defensor. Dr. Oels and the other officials, officers of Bayer; Ms. Cox and the other officials of the United Nations; Dr. Dayrit and the other educators and students; young people from Asia-Pacific; guests; I'd like to especially acknowledge the presence of Former Prime Minister Cesar Virata; ladies and gentlemen. A warm welcome first of all to all the participants of Eco-minds from Asia-pacific. I'm very happy to be here and I'm very happy to see the involvement of young Filipinos in environmental protection. And I'm very happy that Dr. Oels said that this conference is going to have as its unifying theme the millennium development goals. Sometime ago, in our conference in the Philippines on the progress of the Philippines in achieving the millennium development goals, in a teleconference on the wide screen, Dr. Jeffrey Sachs hailed our Medium- term Philippine Development Plan as one of the best, if not the best that he has seen, and I'm very proud of that. In that development plan, we have a whole chapter on the environment and natural resources. And let me share with you some of the highlights of that chapter. In that plan, we recognized the need to manage our natural resources and protect the environment to improve our quality of life and that of future generations. Indeed, the young will be the beneficiaries of our sustainable development and any sustainable development all over the world that's why it's so appropriate that Bayer should concentrate its eco-minds on the young. We want to maximize physical planning as a development tool to create jobs. We want to define the major role of land in wealth generation and in fast- tracking the development of the rural countryside. Land is the source of our food. And I'm happy to see in the presentation of Dr. Oels the many ways in which Bayer participates in sustainable agriculture. Our development plan considers that our country is the second largest archipelago in the world -- the largest being Indonesia. And that our country has a fragile island ecosystem. We are replanting our mangroves and implementing fish sanctuaries. In fact, in taking care of our fragile ecosystems, one of the successes that we are proud of about our environmental policies is that we are now the only country in the region which does not have the bird flu. Since this epidemic is spreading across the region and now even into central Asia, I had instructed the Secretary of Natural Resources and Environment to help the Department of Agriculture to intensify the communication campaign against bird flu by coming out in the media with the following: First, maps of threatened areas in the country where migratory birds could be. Yesterday, Secretary Defensor and I visited one of those areas, Olango island in Cebu. There are others as big as Olango island like the Candaba swamps in my province of Pampanga and in the Liguasan marsh in Mindanao. But there are at least 20 others of this nature and I have asked the government offices to bring out a map so that the people in those areas can be more aware. Second, a list of do's and dont's when in contact with the birds. Third, a list of avian flu symptoms and procedures to take when infection is suspected. Fourth, communication materials, plugs and advertising incorporating the information that I have just asked for. And five, broadcast releases of bird flu inspection and screening procedures by the various agencies of the government led by the Department of Agriculture. For instance, a few weeks ago, I saw Secretary Defensor explaining on TV why they prohibited the entry of a certain shipment of exotic fowls into the country. One of the major points of my ten-point legacy agenda, and I'm glad that Bayer is very interested in this, is to provide clean water by the year 2010. This means bringing clean water to 200 waterless villages right in Metro Manila and 200 waterless towns outside metro manila both through private sector and public investment. And I hope Bayer will be very active in this. We're working to ensure clean water also by implementing the solid waste act and the clean water act which as Secretary Defensor said were signed into law during my administration, in fact during the first year of my administration in 2001. Related to water are the watersheds. We're rationalizing and prioritizing reforestation and watersheds to preserve rivers and other fresh water systems and begin to restore previous ecological balance, to solve our drinking water as I said earlier and irrigation water needs, and to solve destructive and costly flooding problems, and of course also to provide revenues to the government and income to our tree farmers instead of the farmers, the tree farmers of the wood-exporting countries. After all, the Philippines used to be a major timber producer, but we didn't learn our lessons then. We have learned the lessons now. We can create additional wealth by intercropping fruit-producing trees and high-value vegetables on the floor of the forest plantations. Our major plans for livelihood also include responsible mining that adheres to the principles of sustainable development, namely: economic growth, environmental protection and social equity. We believe that responsible mining reduces poverty and benefits local and indigenous communities. But we don't only talk about nature and agriculture when we talk about environment, there's also the physical and visual environment and hygienic environment. And I have been calling for a clean up drive in all provincial capitols and municipalities and offices of our government. And yesterday, I asked the young people of central Philippines through the local youth councils to make this their primary project in the months to come. These are some of the highlights of what we want to do for sustainable development. Our Medium-term Plan is a complex brew but the Filipino has the mind and the spirit for it. And on behalf of the Filipino people, I thank Bayer for giving the opportunity to expand the minds and the spirits of our Filipino youth, and in fact the youth of the entire Asia-Pacific region. May you have a successful conference. Thank you. |