LGU leagues sign Malolos Green Covenant

MALOLOS CITY – The heads of local government leagues signed here yesterday the first Malolos Green Covenant that will serve as a blueprint to combat climate change. 

The signing coincided with the 114th anniversary of the opening of the Malolos Congress. 

Oriental Mindoro Gov. Alfonso Umali Jr., president of the League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP); San Fernando City Mayor Oscar Rodriguez, who leads the League of Cities; and Paombong Mayor Donato Marcos, president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines, signed the covenant. 

The three-page covenant was drafted by Malolos City Mayor Christian Natividad and Nong Rangasa, president of the Local Climate Change Adaptation and Development Inc.; and Illac Angelo Diaz, executive director of the May Shelter Foundation. 

Natividad said the covenant will be presented to the United Nations on Sept. 23. 

“This is just the first step. We still have to draft the first Green Constitution of the Philippines,” Natividad said. 

He said they intend to ratify the green constitution by Jan. 20 next year, in time for the 114th anniversary of the ratification of the Malolos Constitution. 

“We would like to ride on the tide of history,” Natividad said. 

“If our ancestors came to Malolos as one 114 years ago with the aim of ending the repressive Spanish regime, we come today here with the same fervor to prepare ourselves from the onslaught of climate change,” he said.

Some of the provisions of the First Malolos Green covenant are: Focus on sustainable development; attainment of the Millennium Development Goals targets for 2015 by harnessing the eco-cultural tourism potential of the Philippines as a premier tourist destination; and adoption of the Legazpi Declaration 2010, signed at the first Philippine Tourism conference on Climate Change Adaptation, which recommends eco-cultural policies for better tourism industry. 

The covenant also seeks the preservation of cultural and environmental assets and design and implementation of programs that will utilize climate and disaster proofing measures in restoration and preservation of man-made structures, modification of business practices, design investments and other measures for time and balanced response to climate change.