Preceded by Horacio C. Ramos | Preceded by Ramon Paje Grandparent Eugenio Lopez Sr. | |
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President Benigno S. Aquino IIIRodrigo Duterte Full Name Regina Paz La'O Lopez Born December 27, 1953 (age 63) ( 1953-12-27 ) Alma mater Occupation Cabinet secretaryexecutiveenvironmentalistphilantrophist Siblings Eugenio Lopez III, Roberta Pilar L. López Parents Eugenio Lopez, Jr., Chita Lopez Nephews Andres López, Santiago López Similar Eugenio Lopez III, Eugenio Lopez - Jr, Arthur Tugade, Eugenio Lopez Sr, Rodrigo Duterte | ||
Regina Paz "Gina" La'O López (born December 27, 1953) is a Filipino environmentalist and philanthropist who is the current Secretary of the Philippines' Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). She is a former yoga missionary and a pioneer for corporate social responsibility. She was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte.
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Lopez is serving her post in an ad interim basis until the Commission on Appointments is set to confirm or reject her appointment as environment secretary in March 14, 2017.
Early life
López is the daughter of ABS-CBN Chairman Emeritus Eugenio López, Jr. of Iloilo and Conchita La'O of Manila. She has six siblings including ABS-CBN Chairman Eugenio López III. Lopez went to Assumption College and Newton College of the Sacred Heart in Boston. She has a Master’s Degree in Development Management from the Asian Institute of Management. She has two sons.
Civic involvement
After studying in the United States, Lopez left her elite life in Manila and became a yoga missionary for 20 dedicated years and went to Portugal, India, and Africa. She met her now ex-husband in Africa with whom she had two sons. She became an Ananda Marga yoga missionary who taught yoga, and ran pre-primary schools and children's homes for the underprivileged. She lived among the people of slum areas in Africa guided by the slogan ‘Service to humanity is service to God’.
When she returned to the Philippines, she initiated corporate social responsibility programs for the environment and Filipino communities. She became the Managing Director of the ABS-CBN Foundation.
She initiated Bantay Bata 163, the country’s first media-based hotline. In 1997, Bantay Bata was the United Nations Grand Awardee for Excellence besting 187 countries all over the world.
She established Bantay Kalikasan, for which she received the 1997 International Public Relations Award of Excellence for the Environment and Outstanding Manilans Award for the Environment, 2009.
She produced educational television shows on Science, Math, Values, History and English for elementary and Philippine Literature for high school. For Sineskwela, Ms. Lopez was honored with the UNESCO Kalinga Award, the first Southeast Asian to earn such a distinction.
She is also the Vice-Chairperson of ABS-CBN Bayan Foundation, which provides microfinance assistance to micro-entrepreneurs. She is also the Chairman Emeritus of Southeast Asian Children’s Television.
Lopez also initiated the rehabilitation of the Pasig River and nearby urban streams through the Kapit Bisig para sa Ilog Pasig project.Once considered as the lifeline of the Filipino nation, Pasig River is one of the most polluted and toxic river systems in the Philippines today. For her efforts in rehabilitating the river, she was appointed in 2010 by President Benigno S. Aquino as the Chairperson of the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission. Her efforts in the commission led to a river rehabilitation revolution which cleansed numerous tributaries in the Pasig river system. She was also responsible for the reforestation of the La Mesa Watershed Reservation, the last remaining forest zone in Metro Manila.
She organized Bayanijuan (lit. Country of Juan. Lopez also launched the Save Palawan Movement along with partner organizations and gathered 7 million signatures for a petition for protection of key biodiversity areas and against mining. Lopez is a vehement anti-mining advocate, known for her stance against large-scale mining in the province of Palawan. She backs the No Mining In Palawan Movement. She has also objected to the use of fossil fuels as sources of energy and coal mining.