Wazzup Pilipinas!?
What follows is the official statement of UN Sasakawa Laureate, ASEAN Science Diplomat Glenn Banaguas, on the occasion of President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr.’s inauguration as the 17th President of the Republic of the Philippines and the latter’s underscoring of science initiatives in his inaugural address to the nation.
On behalf of my colleagues in the science diplomacy corps and in the climate change and disaster risk reduction and management communities, I congratulate President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. on the occasion of his inauguration as the 17th President of the Republic of the Philippines.
Mr. President, we welcome and take up your call to address the looming crises of climate change that perpetually cast their long shadow on the nation’s future.
Indeed, as you rightly pointed out, the Philippines is one of the most at-risk nations to climate change in the world. And even as the country struggles with sustaining and protecting itself in the face of global upheaval, so too do we also wrestle with the need to develop sustainable production systems and an eco-friendly economy for our people. Thankfully, we are not alone in this ambition: the Philippines and the rest of our fellow member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) thus drafted the ASEAN Plan of Action on Science, Technology and Innovation (APASTI) 2016-2025. This far-reaching plan underscores the importance of public-private collaboration, talent mobility, people-to-people connectivity, inclusiveness, enterprise support, public awareness, and STI enculturation as cornerstones for sustainable growth both within and between our brethren nations.
Mr. President, we thank you for echoing this international call for cooperation and unity in your inaugural address, and we stand ready to serve the Philippines under your stewardship. In particular, we at the Environmental and Climate Change Research Institute (ECCRI) have committed ourselves entirely to the pursuit and achievement of the APASTI and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and we are grateful to the new administration for giving these ideals their long-overdue acknowledgement and prioritization.
As a science diplomat, I have always believed that science and government policy are as paramount as they are inseparable; I remain focused on bringing these to the poorest communities and most marginalized sectors of our country. To this end, the ECCRI’s flagship program, Climate Smart Philippines: Science for Service, provides cutting-edge research, training, and capacity-building to our countrymen in order to combat climate change and disaster risks. This initiative is focused particularly on food security, sustainable energy, water sufficiency, human security, ecological and environmental stability, knowledge management and capacity development, and climate-smart infrastructures and services, climate and sustainable financing programs—all of which were touched on, directly or incidentally, in the President’s inaugural speech.
No less than the United Nations has acknowledged and honored our efforts, via its prestigious Sasakawa Award for Disaster Risk Reduction for 2022. This prestigious global honor is bestowed on institutions, groups, and individuals that promote inclusive and resilient approaches to disaster risk reduction in line with the UN’s Sendai Framework. And while we are thankful for this accolade, we continue to believe that our greatest achievement is to serve the Filipino people through our work.
So it is that we congratulate and thank you, our President, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., for paving the way towards jumpstarting our nation’s climate-smart capacity, and its disaster preparedness and resiliency.
Mabuhay po tayong lahat.
In perpetual service to the Filipino People,
Sci. Dpl. Glenn S. Banaguas
Chairman, Asian (ASEAN) Science Diplomats
Chairman, US-ASEAN Fellows for Science and Technology
Climate Diplomat, EU-Asia Expert Panel for Climate Diplomacy and Environmental Security
Founder and President, Environmental and Climate Change Research Institute
Executive Director, Philippine Council for Foreign Relations
UN Sasakawa Laureate
Asia Sustainability Leaders Awardee
The Outstanding Filipino (TOFIL) Laureate
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