HEHERSON TURINGAN ALVAREZ
Commissioner
Climate Change Commission
--------------------------------------------------
PUBLIC SERVICE
• Senator, 12 years; (TwoTerms; Chair of the Senate Committee on Environment for 10 years).
• Congressman (One Term)
CABINET POSTS:
• Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)
• Secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)
• (Secretary) Presidential Adviser on Global Warming and Climate Change
• (Secretary) Presidential Adviser on Overseas Filipino Communities
• (Secretary) Presidential Adviser on Agrarian Reform (2005-2006)
• Ambassador Extraordinary Plenipotentiary to the U.S.
• Commissioner, Climate Change Commission, (Current Position)
ACADEMICS
* M.A. Public Administration,Harvard University, USA
* Degree of Juris Doctor, Honoris Causa, Stratford International University
- School of Engineering and Environmental Management, Wyoming USA
* Ph. D., Honoris Causa, Environmental Science, Mindanao State University
* Studied Liberal Arts and Law, University of the Philippines
MAJOR LEGISLATIONS
• Creation of the Department of Energy (RA 7638)
• Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (RA 6657)
• National Integrated Protected Areas Act (NIPAS) RA 7586
• Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park Act (RA 9125)
• Strategic Environmental Plan (SEP) for Palawan (RA 7611)
• Resolution Declaring April 22 of every year as Earth Day in the Philippines (Presidential Proclamation 1481)
MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• Introduced unleaded gasoline into the country in 1994. To achieve this he brought together the 3 major oil players in the country – Shell, Caltex and Petron – to sign the Healthy Air Pact of 1993, that initiated the drastic removal of lead from gasoline.
CONVENOR:
• In February 1995 he organized the First Asia-Pacific Leaders’ Conference on Climate Change (ASPAC-LCCC) which galvanized the Asia-Pacific region on the impending danger of global warming. Minister from 32 Asia-Pacific nations signed The Manila Declaration that took cognizance of the extreme vulnerability of our archipelagic and island regions to sea level rise and the ferocious changes in weather conditions.
• 1996 Advisory Committee on the Protection of the Seas (ACOPS) Ministerial Meeting where the global program of action for the protection of the marine environment from land-based sources of pollution was discussed