Press statement of Senator Loren Legarda

On countries reducing carbon emissions

Developed countries are being pressed by an alliance of developing countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent to help in the campaign against global warming and climate change. The Philippines is being encouraged to join the said alliance so it can lend its voice in asking rich countries like the United States to lessen their carbon footprints.

Developed countries, in turn, are pushing developing countries to reduce their emissions too. At a glance, it seems many countries, rich and poor, are unwittingly engaged in finger-pointing, with the latter group saying that the rich and industrialized countries are largely to blame for global warming due to their bigger carbon footprint.

But to me, there's nothing wrong with both developed and developing countries calling for reduced carbon emissions. What it simply means is that reducing carbon emission is an undertaking not only for all countries, but for each and every person on earth. After all, we live in the same planet and climate change affects us all in different ways, immaterial of who has the bigger responsibility for the problem that is global warming.

On schools acting vs A(H1N1)

Moves by many schools in the country to use thermal scanning and other precautionary measures against the spread of the swine flu or A(H1N1) virus are laudable, more so since many did so out of their own volition.

While private schools and universities may have the funds for such measures, the education and health departments are encouraged to initiate similar actions in public schools, considering the A(H1N1) outbreaks that had already been recorded in two public schools in Nueva Ecija and Bulacan.

There are so many other measures that can be undertaken in public that may help in the fight against the virus. For example, operators of mass transportation systems like the MRT, LRT and buses may regularly disinfect their vehicles at the start of each day of their operations.

On giving OFWs more protection

Despite bleak economic conditions worldwide, OFW remittances for the first four months of the year rose to $5.5 billion, up by 2.6 percent from the same period in 2008. The Bangko Sentral has expressed optimism that OFW remittances would continue to grow in view of what it projected to be a sustained demand for skilled Filipino workers.

In view of the big contributions of OFWs to our economy and in order to facilitate the deployment of more of our workers in international labor markets, I urge the Department of Labor and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration to provide much-need assistance to OFWs and Filipino applicants for jobs abroad.

Government is encouraged to look into the bottlenecks in the processing of work documents as complained about by many applicants, especially since our countrymen are competing against other nationals for the limited jobs abroad. Our government must also forge agreements with nations hosting substantial numbers of OFWs so the latter may be given ample protection against abuses.