President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. speaks at the e Seafarer 2050 Summit in Pasay City on Monday, June 26, 2023. Photo screen grabbed from RTV Malacañang.
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. lamented the public’s disregard for scientists’ warnings on climate change dangers on Monday.
During the 160th Anniversary of the Philippine Forestry Service (PFS) under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Chief Executive talked about people’s neglect of the environment.
“We have had many warnings over the decades by scientists saying that unless we change our habits, unless we change our lack of sensitivity to our environment, there will be global warming. There will be climate change. Unfortunately, we didn’t listen,” he said.
“And now we are resigned to the one-a-half degrees Celsius increase in our global temperature and, perhaps, that might even reach two degrees celsius if we don’t do something about it,” he added.
According to Marcos, the Philippines must be very conscious of the environment since the country is very vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
“The world that we have today and that we face is a very different world than what we came to and the importance of the environment, of biodiversity, has become clearer and clearer,” said Marcos.
The President also led a tree-planting ceremony at the DENR.
He planted a Molave at the department grounds.
Molave is a widely-chosen tree for these occasions since it is strong and widely available.
Also in attendance at the event were House Speaker Martin Romualdez, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, and Environment Secretary Antonia Loyzaga.
PFS was formed during the Spanish colonization era.
It was later restructured and absorbed by DENR.
RELATED STORIES:
It’s going to to get 1.5-degree C hotter by 2027, scientists warn
Marcos orders DENR to get tougher on small, large-scale mining
Bongbong Marcos orders creation of DENR’s Water Resources Management Office