May 30, 2025
To the Climate Change Commission, to the visionary leaders of the University of the Philippines Visayas – Antique, the resilient communities of Antique, our fisherfolk, scientists, youth champions, fellow advocates, and stewards of our seas: Magandang umaga sa ating lahat!
Today, we gather as custodians of a sacred trust: the future of our oceans. Here in Pandan, where the mountains meet the sea, we are reminded that our survival depends on a delicate balance.
Let me begin by grounding our discussion in […]
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May 27, 2025
Good afternoon to our distinguished guests, fellow advocates for sustainability, members of the diplomatic corps, colleagues from government, civil society, academe, and especially, our youth leaders.
A decade ago, we issued a call. Today, we raise it into a demand, along with concrete constructive measures.
More than commemorating the 2015 Manila Call to Action and its origin, we celebrate its achievements and enduring relevance.
In 2015, the world was waking up to the full gravity of the climate crisis. Typhoon Haiyan had devastated […]
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May 20, 2025
The imagination peoples the air. As you traveled across our islands these past days, I hope you have felt the force of imagination around you, flowing through our stories, etched in our landscapes, and alive in the spirited conversations that welcomed you.
It is this same imagination that brought us here today. When the Philippines made its modest return to the Frankfurter Buchmesse in 2015 after a 15-year absence, I dared to ask: Why not the Philippines as Guest of Honour? I took this […]
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February 26, 2025
Her Excellency, Ambassador Marie Fontanel, esteemed guests, and dear partners in climate action:
Ten years ago, I stood beside French actress and climate advocate Marion Cotillard, holding a piece of paper that was meant to do the impossible: to make the world listen. It was the Manila Call to Action on Climate Change, a declaration led by Presidents Benigno Aquino III and François Hollande.
I remember that day vividly. The air was heavy with urgency, but also with hope. Behind my voice […]
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February 26, 2025
Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen: magandang araw sa inyong lahat.
Two thousand years ago, in the highlands of pre-colonial Philippines, a child stood at the edge of a terrace, his toes curled over the ledge. Below him, his grandfather waded knee-deep in the paddies, tending to a vast staircase of earth, mud walls carved with precision, rising along the mountain’s natural contours to altitudes and inclines unmatched anywhere else in the world.
The child does not yet understand what he is […]
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