Liberal Party president Senator Francis Pangilinan has expressed hope the public will focus on climate crisis and food security this 2020.
“As 2019 winds down and we look toward 2020, let’s make a commitment to continue standing up for our rights and what is true, and for our future and our children,” he said.
“We will be faced with fresh challenges anew—higher prices triggered by TRAIN Law, low farmers’ incomes, climate crisis,” warned Pangilinan.
Despite the joy of 2019, he told the public to always remember “our countrymen who lost their homes, jobs and lives due to natural disasters.”
“It would be a bigger disaster if we will neglect and ignore the threats of climate crisis. Climate crisis is a crisis of humanity,” he said.
He said this would affect food production or farming or fishing.
The task ahead, he said, is enormous, but the people’s fighting spirit is greater.
Due to this, he exhorted everybody to heed the call of scientists to lower our so-called carbon footprint and reduce pollution. Let us start in our home and community: Reduce, reuse, recycle ng mga gamit, kasama na ang tubig at kuryente.
Senator Juan Edgardo Angara wished for a health care that would heal us when sickness strikes.
“Better schools for our children, so they can go through life as far and as fast as their talent will take them. Jobs for all Filipinos, one that will put food on the table, roof over his head, and hope in the hearts of his loved ones. “
“For those who feed us, a better year, bumper harvest and bountiful catch.”
“To those who labor overseas, more reunions with loved ones, and finally, after dreams have been met, a one-way ticket to the homeland, for their families to be complete again.”
To civil servants, he said the continuing passion to serve the people, whether molding the minds of the youth, defending the country’s borders, or keeping the streets safe.
He also wanted entrepreneurs profit with honor, a just return to the audacity of their investments, including millennials in brave start-ups.
“As we begin the third decade of the millennium, may we be united in our vision of what we want for us all,” he said.
Describing the year 2019 “a bittersweet year,” Senator Nancy Binay said “each one of us had moments of heartaches and joy, sadness and triumphs. “
“But there is so much to be thankful for—napagtagumpayan nating lahat ang 2019.”
Despite the travails of life, she said “we will always welcome the new year with a bright and colorful smile.”