AQUINO, ED GERARD R.

1CTE1D-NSTP1
REFLECTION

"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

-John F. Kennedy

A woman ahead of her time, Gina Lopez reminded us that we need to take
courageous actions and speak inconvenient truths, if we are to save our natural
heritage and, indeed, our planet. While she could have lived a luxurious life or
adhered to “feel-good environmentalism,” she took the path of most resistance,
boldly campaigning against the destructive practices that are at the roots of the
crises.

I had watched her from afar, finding her somewhat difficult to define or
classify. Was she a mere dilletante who had the leisure and resources to dabble in
good works? No one knows!

I became more interested when she began to show results of her advocacies
such as the cleanup of the Pasig River, the rehabilitation of La Mesa Dam forest,
the rescue of children in difficult circumstances by Bantay Bata and other successes
of the ABS-CBN Foundation that she headed. I watched her work for the passage of
the Clean Air Act, do battle with loggers and miners and call attention to the need
to preserve Palawan as the last hold-out in the country’s losing battle against
environmental degradation.

But Gina remained an enigma. She was certainly a different breed from
other so-called public servants. I admired her guts as Secretary of Environment and
Natural Resources taking on big mining and even being labelled as a traitor to the
privileged class her family belongs to.

Moreover, she also served as a role model for environmental advocates all
over the country. “She showed me that anyone, from the acutely marginalized to
even the extremely privileged, can be an environmentalist, and that we can all take
bold steps in our lives.

People are constantly complaining about their surroundings, and keep doing
nothing. Which brings me great sorrow, because most of us today don’t even care
about tomorrow.

The truth is simple, if you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it,
then change your attitude about it, but whatever you choose to do, don’t complain
about it if you are not willing to do something to make a change for the better.

Because whatever you're fighting for, racialism, poverty, feminism, gay rights, or
any type of equality, it won’t matter in the least because if we don’t all work
together to save the environment, we will be all equally extinct.