Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda on Tuesday, July 26 called for unity toward resilience as the country’s priority strategy in its response to the pandemic and the climate crisis.

In her first privilege speech delivered in the 19th Congress, Legarda, an environmentalist, said ’We need to heed the call of science and our experts to pursue and realize economy-wide and community-based measures that aim at reaching our goals sooner rather than later.’’

Legarda said President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. himself said in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday that government’s response to the climate crisis should be just as urgent.

‘’Let’s invest in where it truly matters so our development gains won’t be wasted come another typhoon or disaster. Let’s strive for a better normal by enabling genuine and lasting resilience for all,’’ she explained.

‘’Together, let us lead the way towards a resilient and sustainable pandemic recovery for all Filipinos, for all species in the world, and for our future generations,’’ she added.

Legarda impressed upon her coileagues that ‘’We are obviously living in challenging times of climatic changes that are unparalleled over thousands to millions of years.’’

‘’The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) has warned us that today’s temperatures are at the highest in 125,000 years. We are now at the point of no return in our battle against climate change,’’ she warned.

Legarda said the report also tells Filipinos with absolute certainty that the human factor on climate change is “unequivocal”.

‘’If we fail to heed the science and address the causes of climate change, there would be dire consequences on our society and ecosystems,’’ she added.