Alvarez receives merited award for meritocracy

We are always happy when any public official gets due recognition for any outstanding contribution that they may make to the country. It is in this spirit that we were very glad when we read that former senator and environment secretary Heherson T. Alvarez was bestowed the Degree of Juris Doctor (J.D.), honoris causa, citing his "unique and courageous example or meritocracy" by no less than the Stratford International University School of Engineering and Environmental Management based in Wyoming, USA. The award was presented by Dean Abdul S. Hassam in the University of Cebu. It was the first time that the University had ever held a "special convocation" outside its own country.

In making the award, Stratford International University President William Wescon said: "We honor today a distinguished public figure known for his track record of being the father of milestones-setting environment laws in the Philippine Senate and for taking up the cudgels for the country’s poor small fisherfolk, small miners and small farmers against the country’s powerful businessmen-politicians... He remains a principled man in public administration."

Alvarez served two terms in the Senate and it is no exaggeration to say that he is responsible for all the significant environmental laws we have in the country today – the Clean Air Act, Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, Clean Water Act, Chain Saw Act, not to mention the National Integrated and Protected Areas System Act, Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park Act, Strategic Environmental Plan for Palawan and the law creating the Department of Energy. As Environment Secretary, he signed the administrative order that protected the impoverished marginalized fishermen by giving them exclusive use of the 15 kilometers of municipal waters from the shoreline to the sea. It was also Alvarez who in 1990 authored the Senate Resolution proclaiming April 22 of each year as Earth Day in the Philippines. Earth Days was being celebrated worldwide since 1970. It took 20 years for the Philippines to become part of the global celebration, thanks to the initiative of Alvarez.

We have many politicians in the Senate but very few statesmen. Alvarez served two terms and authored almost all our environmental laws. Now he is running for a third term and his disadvantage is that he is running as an independent. He was definitely a credit in the Senate and we hope that the people will give him the opportunity to serve a third term. He has all the qualifications one needs to be in the Senate, meaning the background and the experience. We ask the people to get him back to the Senate.