President Gloria Macagal-Arroyo signed yesterday (May 12) the “One Visayas Climate Change Covenant” with Visayan stakeholders. This was the highlight of the two-day One Visayas Climate Change Summit held at theImperial Palace Waterpark Resort Hotel, Lapu-Lapu City.
Arroyo stressed out that the environment can no longer take a back seat to economic development. The President also lauded the leaders of the three Visayan regions for their united stand against climate change and their initiative in convening the summit which aims to heighten public awareness on global warming and understand its causes. Arroyo also says that climate change is bad for the Philippine economy and particularly bad for the Visayan economy whose future is mainly anchored on eco-tourism.
The Tourism Act of 2009 which was also signed, will also contribute to efforts to reduce the effects of climate change by giving more teeth to the country’s tourism jobs creation policies which have strong environment protection component. (PIA-MMIO)