Who isLoren
Legarda?

Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda is a 4-term Senator and is the most senior among the Senators serving in the 19th Congress. She previously served as a Member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines, representing the Lone District of the Province of Antique. She is the only Antiqueña who has served the House as Deputy Speaker. She is also currently the UNDRR Global Champion for Resilience, the UNFCCC National Adaptation Plan Champion, Commissioner of the Global Commission on Adaptation and Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) Ambassador for Parliaments. Her inspiring advocacy on environmental protection has earned her global recognition. She has been recognized as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum and is a UNEP Laureate. Apart from these achievements, she is also the Global Ambassador for Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Change, and Environment of the Women Political Leaders. She is a champion for women’s and children’s rights and is a passionate advocate for the promotion of arts and culture.

115 Laws
Passed
950 Bills
Filed
440 Resolution
Filed
190 Resolution
Adopted
30 Treaties
Concurred

Top Notch Senator

The only female senator who topped the Senate race twice.

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Peace Builder

Loren Legarda has played a crucial role in contributing to peace efforts.

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Family of Public Servants

Loren Legarda was born into a family of newsmen, educators, physicians, and public servants.

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Game Changer for Asia

Over the years, Loren Legarda has emerged as a Game Changer for Asia, with her compelling vision for a just, safer and greener world for all.

Loren advocates for sustainable living in harmony with nature by seeking the path for green growth and resilient development for nations. Working with world leaders, She has pushed for locally-led adaptation to help save our home planet and preserve humankind.

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Environmental Champion

As the Philippines’ foremost advocate of green development, Loren Legarda worked, sponsored, and authored landmark laws on environmental governance, protection of the environment, and conservation of natural resources, among others.

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Women's & Children's Rights Champion

Loren Legarda places special interest in protecting the rights and promoting the welfare of women, youth, and children.

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Voice of the Indigenous Peoples

Loren Legarda has become the voice of Filipinos who continue to embrace their cultural roots and heritage.

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Multi-awarded Journalist

Prior to becoming an elected public official, Loren was an award-winning broadcast journalist, anchor and producer of two of the Philippines’ most popular and respected news programs. As her television career advanced, however, she found herself interested, more and more, in finding solutions to the problems she was reporting on.

As a journalist, Loren earned prestigious awards such as the Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) from the Philippine Jaycees (1992), The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS) Award (1995), and the Benigno Aquino Award for Journalism (1995), among more than 30 awards, for her sterling record as a broadcast journalist for more than two decades.

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MSMEs Advocate

Loren Legarda is the principal sponsor and co-author of Republic Act No. 9501, or the Magna Carta for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

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Passion for Excellence

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Global Thinker

The world recognizes the inspiring leadership of Loren Legarda in the global campaign for good environmental governance. In 2000, the World Economic Forum held in Davos named her as one of the Global Leaders for Tomorrow.

Similarly, the United Nations has also acknowledged Loren Legarda twice. In the year 2001, the United Nations Environment Programme conferred on her the title of UNEP Laureate and included her in the Global 500 Roll of Honor.

In 2008, the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) appointed her as its Regional Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation for Asia and the Pacific during the 3rd Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction held in December 2008 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Along with her appointment as regional champion is the mission to convey an important message to world leaders.

A couple of months before her appointment as champion, in a seeming test of her parliamentary leadership, Loren Legarda was asked by UNISDR to steer a meeting of parliamentarians in Manila on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. Leading parliamentarians from Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America came to the meeting in October 2008.

Through her able leadership, Loren successfully steered the meeting into a consensus dubbed as the Manila Call for Action by Parliamentarians which called on parliamentarians of the world to make disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation a national priority and a key consideration in development planning.

Loren, in her first official country mission as the Asia-Pacific Regional Champion in May 2009, addressed the Bhutan National Sensitization Workshop on Disaster Risk Reduction, encouraging delegates to incorporate disaster risk reduction as an integral part of their development concept of Gross National Happiness.

At the Second Session of the Global Platform on Disaster Reduction in Geneva in June 2009, Loren challenged world leaders with a call for a new brand of politics and governance – the kind that shepherds proactive laws and policies to address disaster risks. She reiterated this challenge at the 2009 Forum on the Human Impact of Climate Change and at the parliamentary meeting of the climate change conference in Copenhagen.

In July 2009, Loren led a UNISDR delegation that sealed an agreement between Maldives and UNISDR to define a comprehensive disaster risk reduction strategy for the island nation, and find means for the UN and other partners to help the country implement this strategy.

In November 2010, Loren Legarda convened the Consultative Meeting for Parliamentarians on Disaster Risk Reduction: An Instrument for Achieving the Millennium Development Goals towards a consensus to undertake concrete actions embodied in the Manila Call for Action 2010.

Loren, with the UNISDR, spearheaded international dialogues in Paris, Beijing, Geneva, Copenhagen and Hanoi. She is a member of the Global Advisory Group of Parliamentarians on Disaster Risk Reduction.

Loren Legarda’s journey on the international level, the prominent role she plays in the Asia-Pacific region, and her advocacy among world leaders and citizens of the Philippines and the region, are recounted in a book entitled Redefining Development: The Living Advocacy of Senator Loren Legarda, as she challenges everyone to promote responsible leadership, good governance and sustainable living.

In the realm of foreign relations, Loren Legarda, who was Chairperson of the Committee on Foreign Relations in the 15th Congress, sponsored the approval of 16 international agreements, deepening the Philippines’ bilateral relations with various countries and promoting the welfare of Filipinos in the country and abroad. These agreements are the RP-Japan Agreement on Technical Cooperation; the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court; the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture; the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Convention, Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts; the Agreement between the Government of the Philippines and the International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management to Establish the Office of the WorldFish Center in the Philippines; the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) between the Philippines and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; the MLAT between the Philippines and the People’s Republic of China; the Consular Agreement with the People’s Republic of China; the Convention on Social Security between the Republic of the Philippines and the Kingdom of Spain; the Status of Visiting Forces Agreement Between the Philippines and Australia; the International Labour Organization Convention 189 (Convention Concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers); the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006; the Protocol Amending the Agreement between the Philippine Government and the French Republic for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on Income; two (2) treaties on the Avoidance of Double Taxation – the Philippines – Kuwait Tax Treaty and the Philippines- Qatar Tax Treaty and the Agreement between the Philippine Government and the UNESCO to establish the Southeast Asian Center for Lifelong Learning for Sustainable Development (SEA CLLSD) in the country.

On the occasion of the 2015 Paris Climate Summit (the 21st Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC) on 30 November 2015, Loren Legarda was appointed by the UNISDR as Global Champion for Resilience, with the distinguished role of providing leadership to build the resilience of nations and communities from disasters.

In 2016, she was co-head of the Philippine delegation to the high-level signing of the Paris agreement in new york. In 2017, she was head of the philippine delegation to the 23RD session of the conference of the parties (cop 23) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bonn, Germany. In January 2018, she was the lone Philippine delegate to the 26TH asia-pacific parliamentary forum in Hanoi, Vietnam. In March 2018, she was also head of the Philippine delegation to the 138th assembly of the inter parliamentary union in Geneva, Switzerland. In April 2018, she was alternate head of Philippine delegation to the world bank group-international monetary fund spring meetings in Washington, DC, USA. In May 2018, she was the head of the Philippine delegation to the un climate change conference in Bonn, Germany. In December 2019, she headed the Philippine delegation to COP25 in Madrid, Spain.

Legarda was bestowed with the title of Knight in the French national order of the Legion of Honor, Knight in the order of merit of the Italian republic, and the award of distinction by the European Union.