MANILA (AFP) - Philippine President Gloria Arroyo on Tuesday urged Congress to make dealing with climate change a key priority as a prolonged drought threatens power and water shortages.
Arroyo said the shortages "due to the dry spell deliver a wake-up call for our generation" to work out ways to conserve resources.
The power shortages loom because river levels are low, affecting hydroelectric plants.
Arroyo said her government would work with Congress and key sectors of society to draw up a package of policies and programmes designed to reduce water and energy use.
"This is the direction the whole world will eventually have to go," she told Congressional leaders.
Arroyo said her legislative agenda for her last three years in office would focus on "economic progress, social justice and peace and order."
She also urged the legislature to ratify a free-trade agreement with Japan, calling the treaty "a left-over of urgent business from the last Congress."