The Alliance for Climate Protection-Climate Reality Project (ACP-CRP), a global non-profit organization on climate protection and leadership founded in 2006 by former US Vice President Al Gore, has created a Philippine alliance, the Allen Salas Quimpo Collective Climate Leadership Memorial Awards (ASQCLMA) to encourage civic action against climate change.
The ACP-CRP now operates in more than 30 countries and has trained over 7,800 individuals representing 126 countries as volunteer Climate Change leaders. Al Gore currently serves as its Board chairman while Ken Berlin is its president.
The late Filipino lawyer and educator Allen Salas Quimpo, after whom the Philippine alliance was named, was a tireless civic and humanitarian leader. He established the now world famous 250-hectare Bakhawan (mangrove) forest in Kalibo, Aklan, now named as the Allen Salas Quimpo Eco-Park.
Quimpo underwent training under Al Gore. He served as Aklan’s lone district congressman for three consecutive terms and as mayor of Kalibo, Aklan’s capital town. He was president of the Northwestern Visayas Colleges and an active advocate of the ASEAN Economic Community at the time of his death. He was 70.
During his stint in Congress, Quimpo chaired the House Committee on Education and initiated measures that caused significant reforms in the Department of Education. Among the landmark legislations he principally authored were the laws that created the Commission of Higher Education (CHED) and the establishment of the Aklan State University (ASU).
The recent Allen Salas Quimpo Collective Climate Leadership Memorial Awards rites, hosted by Senator Loren Legarda at the Recto and Laurel Rooms of the Philippine Senate, was attended by Matt Bomms, ACP-CRP International Director, and other dignitaries, including former Senator Sonny Alvarez.
Miguel R. Magalang of Marinduque was among the recipients of Climate Leadership awards for his outstanding role in the efforts to stop destruction of Marinduque’s environment by mining operations.
With the help of the country’s leading climate change adaptation advocates like Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda and former Senator Alvarez, the Allen Salas Quimpo Collective Climate Leadership Memorial Awards aims to focus on education and skills development initiatives related to climate change to help mitigate and reduce the phenomenon’s dangers.
It is hoped the Allen Salas Quimpo’s award-giving body, in tandem with Al Gore’s international organization, will give due recognitions to outstanding climate change adaptation initiatives and encourage more volunteers and advocates. (Johnny Dayang)