Articles

Legarda: Enough Funds for Typhoon Nina Rehab

Senator Loren Legarda today urged all agencies involved in the relief and rehabilitation efforts in areas affected by Typhoon Nina to ensure that needs are met completely and quickly even as she commended the level of disaster preparedness of national agencies and local government units (LGUs).

Message from Zero Waste Philippines

This Christmas and New Year, we have a perfect excuse for you to declutter and start the year right.

Those clothes you loved but no longer fit?
Those housewares you have in duplicate?
Those bags and shoes that have been sitting in your closet for years?
Maybe you received more gifts than you need this Christmas?

Why not give them away for the benefit of our silent heroes on Zero Waste—our Waste Workers!

A Woman of Culture: Loren Legarda receives the Dangal ng Haraya Award for preserving Filipino culture and enriching the arts

For the Cordillera Indigenous Elected Women’s Leaders, she is a tukwifi or a bright star; “the one who takes care” (or a bae matumpis) of the cultural communities in Mindanao; the Panay-Bukidnon community in Visayas touted her as huyong adlaw dulpa-an labaw sa kadunggan, which translates to shining sun, rising in power; and for the Marawi Sultanate League, she is a bai a labi, which means an honorary Muslim Princess. Because of her passion to preserve the Filipino culture and arts, Senator Loren Legarda has been called many names, but she is first and foremost a Filipina who fell in love with our colorful dances, art, and language.

‘Loren shows us the roots of our culture’

And what I try to tell you now is the importance of the arts in the shaping of a nation and I pay tribute to Loren as one who has helped that nation grow and I hope that it will not only grow but eventually it will prevail.

‘Culture and our national identity: Pursuing change that unites’

MANILA, Philippines – This award, while issued in my name, appropriately belongs to my mother who nurtured and influenced me to embrace the majesty of culture and the arts.

My mother, Bessie Gella Bautista, sang operas, collected art, and was a person of culture. As a child, I was surrounded by artists, including Ibarra dela Rosa, H.R. Ocampo and Vicente Manansala — people who, by their art, contributed to shaping our national identity.