Loren discuses poverty issues

Poverty
The United Nations Millennium Development Goals Report of 2009 estimates that from 50 million to 90 million people will slide to extreme poverty at less than $1.25 a day in 2009 because of the global economic crisis. Among them will be millions of Filipinos who will face hunger and deprivation due to unemployment and lower incomes.
To alleviate hunger, the government must initiate a sustained and massive food production drive, engaging provincial, municipal and barangay governments to provide for food sufficiency and reduce our dependence on food imports. It is known that we have many idle lands which remain uncultivated and which could be put to good use producing staple crops.
We have also inland water resources that could be harnessed to produce cultured fish, while our fishermen should be aided by the government to become more productive through technical and material aid. Livestock raising should also be intensified. We should mobilize all our God-given resources to save our people from hunger.

LOREN LEGARDA

Loren on cheaper medicine act

CHEAPER MEDICINE ACT

The government must exercise political will to fully implement the purposes and provisions of the Cheaper Medicines Act. While the drug corporations have submitted a list of the medicines they propose should be covered by the law, the government must not necessarily be governed by such list, but should decide in the greater interest of the consumers, who are ill and mostly poor.
We should not allow the drug companies to interpret the law for us, because they would do so in their own favor. For so long they have exploited our people by charging excessive prices for their medicines sold in this country, even while they are priced much lower in other countries. The President must go ahead with the executive order setting the maximum prices for such medicines as determined by the law.
Medicines are essential items necessary for life itself. While the drug companies are entitled profit, including reserves for research, they should be reasonable and not exploitative.

LOREN LEGARDA

Loren on CHA-CHA Survey

CHA-CHA Survey
Malacañang cannot just ignore the results of the survey conducted by the SWS showing that 70 percent of adult Filipinos are against charter change that would allow President Arroyo to continue in power after 2010.
The question posed by the survey firm was clear enough. It asked the respondents whether they are for or against a charter amendment that would allow President Arroyo to cling to power.
They are firmly against it. In addition, 55% believed that the President is behind the move to amend the Constitution to prolong her hold on government. Instead of denying the accuracy and validity of the survey results, Malacañang should face the issue squarely and answer frankly whether or not the people’s suspicions are correct.
Posing like a Sphinx is not what is expected by the people of their governor in a democratic society. What they want is transparency, honesty and truth.

LOREN DISCUSES ABOUT DRUGS

Drug Menace
The kidnap and rape of a daughter of a government agent against illegal drugs shows that the drug syndicates are becoming bolder and bolder. Because of the billions of pesos they are raking from their illegal drug trade, the syndicates have also poisoned the political system by backing up candidates for public office who would later serve as their protectors in high office. Sometimes illegal drug traders themselves run for public office.
The government must smash the drug syndicates. But the fact that they are getting bolder, and penetrating politics and the government bureaucracy, proves the ineptness and perhaps connivance of some top officials in the government in this pernicious trade. If the present administration cannot stop the illegal drug trade, we must elect a new administration that is determined and capable of stopping it. We must save our children and future generations from illegal drugs.

LOREN LEGARDA

Spare the trees,Loren

Spare the trees
The Department of Public Works and Highways should spare the venerable old trees along MacArthur Highway which the artists are trying to save. Engineering ingenuity can devise means by which the traffic problem could be solved without devastating the environment.
A single mature tree can absorb carbon dioxide at a rate of 48 pounds a year and release enough oxygen back into the atmosphere to support two human beings. Trees also reduce the greenhouse effect by shading our homes and office buildings. This reduces air conditioning needs up to 30%, thereby reducing the amount of fossil fuels burned to produce electricity. This combination of CO2 removal from the atmosphere, carbon storage in wood, and the cooling effect makes trees a very efficient tool in fighting the greenhouse effect.
Thus trees absorb the carbon dioxide emitted by cars speeding along the highway. They protect the lungs of thousands of humans and residents along the highway from ailments coming from the atmosphere. They also protect the world against climate change devastation. We must spare the trees.

Loren Keynotes “Gross National Happiness” Conference

Loren Keynotes “Gross National Happiness” Conference
Senator Loren Legarda left for Thimpu, Bhutan yesterday to address the Bhutan National Sensitization Workshop on Disaster Risk Reduction, in her capacity as United Nations (UN) Regional Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation for the Asia Pacific Region.
Loren was invited by Bhutan Home and Cultural Affairs Minister Lyonpo Minjur Dorji and the royal government of Bhutan.
Before leaving for Bhutan, Loren said that climate change has become the biggest challenge to mankind, with its devastating effects that include extreme droughts and flooding, decimation of species and very strong weather disturbances like super typhoons.
In 2008 alone, 321 disasters had been recorded, killing about a quarter of a million people and affecting 200 million more, she said, adding that they also resulted to $180 billion worth of economic losses.
Loren is chair and founder of the Luntiang Pilipinas (Green Philippines) movement which, through its many volunteers from the private and public sectors, have already planted over two million trees nationwide.
Climate change is blamed on global warming, which, in turn, is due mainly to increased greenhouse gas emissions by man. One way of decreasing said emissions is to plant more and more trees.
Loren is expected to share to the Bhutan delegates the Philippine experience in dealing with climate change, including her efforts to push for the adoption of climate change measures and disaster-risk reduction in government’s program of actions and policies.
The senator is either an author, co-author or sponsor of landmark environmental laws like the Clean Air Act, Solid Waste Management Act and the declaration of several bio-diverse areas in the Philippines as sanctuaries protected by law.

Loren questions plan to stop use of thermal scanners

Loren questions plan to stop use of thermal scanners
BHUTAN (May 26) – Senator Loren Legarda questioned today the plan to stop the use of thermal scanners in the country’s international airports on account of their alleged ineffectiveness in detecting A(H1N1)flu infection.
“The thermal scanners are already in place and operational in our airports, so I don’t see the point of stopping their use in detecting possible A(H1N1) viral infection of inbound passengers,” said Loren.
Loren is here in Bhutan to address a climate change conference in her capacity as UN Regional Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction for Asia Pacific.
“While the Department of Health may be correct that thermal scanners may not detect A(H1N1) flu carriers during the virus’ incubation period, the scanners can nonetheless detect full-blown virus cases as manifested by the carriers running a fever,” she said.
“We have already invested in the scanners and the training of the personnel who use them. The said equipment would go to waste if they would not be used. More importantly, we would be removing one check valve in the fight against the virus.”
She added that the use of the scanners complement other measures in place against the spread of the virus, including the purchase by the DOH of A(H1N1) testing kits to verify the result of tests conducted abroad on specimens sent them by the Philippine government.
“The more layers, the more ways we try to contain the spread of this virus, the better. The use of the thermal scanners also gives our people peace of mind knowing that the government is acting against the spread of the disease right on our gateways.”