Getting politics out of the way

After having participated in four successive elections in the country until the most recent one held last May 13, re-elected Senator Loren Legarda swears to anyone — who cares to believe her â€”  that she won’t run for any public office in the next election in May 2016. Newly re-elected on her second and last term in the Senate, Legarda vows to concentrate and devote her time, energy and resources on her advocacies for environment, climate change, and other pursuits.

Legarda officially bared yesterday her platform on disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) she will pursue for the next six years starting with the opening of the 16th Congress next month. Legarda, who chairs the Senate Committee on Climate Change, declared her priority would be the assessment of the state of implementation of the laws on environment, DRR and CCA that she authored in the previous Congresses.

During the campaign period, Legarda cited, she took the opportunity to promote DRR and CCA at the grassroots level of local government units (LGUs) as the front-line agencies of the national government. She distributed geo-hazard maps to LGUs nationwide to inform communities and citizens on the natural dangers in their areas and how to prepare during typhoons and other calamities.

In collaboration with various government agencies, the office of Senator Legarda produced the Disaster Preparedness and First Aid Handbook to educate citizens how to prepare for and respond to both natural and human-induced hazards. Instead of handing out campaign pamphlets, she tried to give as many copies of the handbook to help preserve lives and properties in times of natural calamities, especially in disaster-prone areas during rainy season now upon us again in our country. 

Consistent with her advocacies of DRR and CCA, Legarda has spearheaded various information and education campaigns on disaster preparedness and the promotion of climate change adaptation measures. She also announced yesterday the launching soon of “Ligtas,” an instructional video on disaster preparedness directed by Brillante Mendoza.

She has produced in the past films and documentaries on climate change such as “Ulan sa Tag-Araw: Isang Dokyu-drama Ukol sa Pagbabago ng Klima,” a children’s animation movie “Ligtas Likas” and “Buhos.” As the UN champion in Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation for the Asia-Pacific, Legarda produced the docu-film “Now is the Time.”  

At the young age of 53, Legarda thinks she is ready to retire from politics at the end of her term as senator in 2019.

With her second marriage ending in legal annulment several years ago, Legarda says she spends more time pursuing her advocacies and service to the people now that her two sons are already adults. So she pleads not to be asked about her love life because she has none, she swears.

Legarda sees herself as already a veteran of sorts in running for higher public office when she lost twice in her vice presidential bids.

She first ran but lost as the vice presidential running mate of the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. during the highly controversial May 2004 elections. Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her vice presidential running mate, fellow senator and Legarda’s former ABS-CBN colleague Noli de Castro won that election.

Legarda filed her own electoral protest against De Castro and fought the legal battle for the next three years. She only withdrew her protest against De Castro when she ran again and won in the Senate race in May 2007. Again, Legarda topped that election under the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC).

She also ran but lost as the vice presidential running mate of former Senate president Manuel “Manny” Villar Jr. in the May 2010 elections. Fortunately, she was an incumbent senator and thus enabled her to return to the Senate. They lost to the tandem of fellow senator and now President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III and former Makati City mayor and now Vice President Jejomar Binay.

But in her maiden entry into politics when she was still a young, popular TV news anchor for ABS-CBN, she first ran and won as senator. She was among the five administration-backed Lakas-NUCD senatorial bets when Legarda topped the May 1998 elections.

The late Senator Renato Cayetano, also of Lakas, came in second to Legarda. Three other fellow Lakas Senate bets won in that election, namely, ex-Senators Teofisto Guingona Jr., Ramon Revilla Sr., and the late Robert Barbers. Three Congresses later, Legarda has for colleagues the children of these former fellow senators.

They include Senators Alan Peter and Pia Cayetano, children of the late Sen. Cayetano; Senators Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., TG Guingona III, Koko Pimentel III and former Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara who are the namesake sons, respectively, of ex-Senators Revilla Sr., Guingona Jr., Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr. and outgoing Sen. Edgardo Angara.

Also incidentally, Legarda’s newest fellow senator in the coming 16th Congress is a political neophyte, Grace Poe-Llamanzares, the daughter of her late presidential standard-bearer. Ironically, it was fellow Team P-Noy senatorial candidate Grace Poe who dislodged Legarda from the top spot in the winning “magic 12” circle. After consistently topping the pre-election surveys, Legarda ended the Senate race second to Poe.

Legarda blamed the smear campaign launched against her towards the last stretch of the campaign when the truthfulness of entries in her statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) was questioned before the media and various fora. While obviously trying to hide her hurt feelings, Legarda prides herself in having grown more mature in dealing with gutter-politics and mudslinging.

But she is happy for Poe and is glad to welcome her to increase the number of women senators in the 16th Congress who include the wife of her erstwhile presidential running mate, former Las Piñas Rep. Cynthia Villar and Senator-elect Nancy Binay plus incumbent Senators Pia Cayetano and Miriam Defensor-Santiago.   

In a rare gesture among politicians, Legarda made a return visit to The STAR last Friday and impressed these things upon us during a “thank you” dinner she hosted for editors. Without politics getting in the way, perhaps Legarda’s DRR and CCA will now be heeded, if not listened to.