"Senator, do you remember me? We’re related. I’m from Marikina," he tells her. She walks towards the first tree we have asked her to pose by, chatting with the official. She looks less the fierce creature her political detractors have depicted her to be. Nearby is a large green sign that says, "Luntiang Pilipinas Forest Park, Senator Loren Legarda Chairperson."
During the shoot, she describes the clothing she wears, which are items made of various textiles from around the country. "This is piña with sinuksok (design). This fabric is from Sulu." She is authoritative, using the kind of tone you would expect from the author and co-sponsor of the Tropical Fabric Law (of which Senator Nene Pimentel was the principal sponsor), which mandates that government employees wear uniforms made of tropical fabric like piña and banana-abaca.
In her home, three of her closets are filled with Filipiniana gowns, jackets, and tribal wear. There are many Patis Tesoros, authentic T’boli costumes given as gifts by the T’boli people, dresses of hablon from the Miag-ao Hablon Weaving Center in Iloilo, abaca from Bicol, Yakan textile and habi; and blouses made of silk and cotton from Mindanao. In another room, she holds up household decor made of textiles from the South and says, "I gave one to Josie Natori and she liked it."
As senator, Loren authored and co-authored the Clean Air Act, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, and the Anti-Smoking Act. She founded Luntiang Pilipinas in 1998, a foundation that aims to promote awareness and education about the environment, and continues to be its zealous chair. "It takes time. It’s hard work. But I believe this: do it and live it." The foundation on urban reforestation has introduced, among others, campus forest parks in Assumption College and Balaytigue Elementary School in Batangas, a "Traffic Island Forest Park" along Buendia, and forest parks in Luneta and the Senate. And of course, there is Luntiang Pilipinas’ most apparent project, the mahogany and acacia trees that line the north and south expressways.
During her childhood in Malabon, in a family compound teeming with sampaloc and caimito trees, Loren discovered her fondness for Mother Earth. Fifteen years later, Loren was president of both the Trees for Life Foundation and Save Our Seas Foundation Inc. In 2001, she was awarded the United Nations Environment Program’s (UNEP) Global 500 Roll of Honor for Environmental Achievement in Turin, Italy, joining the league of French marine explorer and inventor of the Aqua-Lung Jacques Cousteau (who was placed on the list in 1988). "My vision is to have trees in every barangay; in every municipality, one for each Filipino. I’d like to see 80 million trees being planted," says Loren.
According to the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index, which gauges a country’s pollution levels, natural resources, environmental management efforts, and the ability of the country’s society to improve environmental initiatives (using human and economic development information) to rank a country’s current and future capacity to protect its environment, the Philippines stands at a lowly 125 out of 146 countries. Planting trees, says Loren, "is doable, urgent, and non-political." Others have followed suit. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Philippine Wood Producers Association recently announced a mutual agreement to develop Smokey Mountain as a site for urban reforestation.
Luntiang Pilipinas is a vehicle in which Loren can "translate personal advocacy," like what she did as a pioneer in environmental journalism 20 years ago when she produced Earthlink, a documentary television program about the environment. Tree-planting "requires a lot of dedication. Maintaining them is the hard part. But environment is livelihood. It can be done."