Building the country’s resiliency and improving climate change adaptation are on top of his administration’s agenda, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. assured on Wednesday.
“As your President, I assure you that our environment and our country’s resiliency and adaptation to the new normals of climate change are on top of the national agenda,” Marcos said.
He made the assurance during the opening of the 2022 Department of Environment and Natural Resources Multi-Stakeholders Forum in Manila, where he also called for a more robust collaboration to protect the environment.
“We ensure that the initiatives we will take will enable us to become smarter, more responsible, more sustainable in all that we do,” he said.
For the President, the road ahead will be long and tough, and everyone must stay strong and accept that it’s a fight that must be waged by all, and, more importantly — a battle that must be won.
“In this collective fight, we are not soldiers; we are stewards. There will be no weapons to use; only behaviors and practices to improve upon,” he said.
He noted that victory will not come by defeating a visible enemy but will come at certain moments when averting a global crisis becomes imminent.
Marcos said triumph is at hand when there is clean air to breathe, safe water to drink, and lands and oceans to harness for the benefit of all Filipinos and for all humanity.
The President is optimistic that the three-day forum to bring about substantial outcomes that will focus on enriching not only the country’s natural resources but also its national wealth.
He hopes the gathering will become an opportunity for the government and private partners to actively collaborate in translating an integrated and multistakeholder Resiliency Framework into actions that will sustain the growth of the sector.
“So let us join our efforts. I am certain we will pass on to our children a country and a world that are in a much better state than they came upon,” he said.
“We are only custodians of this beautiful planet that we live on. Let us take that responsibility seriously for many generations that will still follow,” he added.
He also expressed elation over the participation of the “big movers and shakers” from the private sector, NGOs, academe, and different countries around the world who have already offered assistance in the country’s battle against the effects of changing climate.
The President’s cousin House Speaker Martin Romualdez, Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma, Senator Cynthia Villar, and members of the diplomatic corps were also in attendance.