Gina Lopez
(Redirected from Regina Paz Lopez)
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Regina Paz Lopez Regina Paz "Gina" La'o Lopez; December 27, 1953 – August 19, 2019) was a Filipino environmentalist and philanthropist who served as Secretary of the Philippines' Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in an ad interim basis under the Duterte administration.[1][2] She was previously the Chairperson of the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission under two consecutive administrations. Lopez was also a yoga missionary and a pioneer for corporate social responsibility.
Quotes
[edit]- "We have this life to live. It doesn't last forever. We do service for the common good and we take on systematic, dynamic steps to develop our own potential. We make a difference for ourselves. It's a very good way to go".
- 𝙄 𝙙𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙠 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙙 𝙞𝙛 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨𝙣’𝙩 𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙠 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚.
- As some of you may know, I am having health challenges which I have found a blessing. So yesterday morning, I was was blessed to have a visit from Gary, his wife Angeli, and the sister of Maricel who is also a very beautiful person.
- Gina Lopez on a facebook video of Gary Valenciano singing a capella to her.
- https://flyingketchup.ph/gina-lopez-a-world-that-runs-on-love/
- She talks of how she felt when she left her body. Heaven is so nice. She didn’t want to come back. So, there is life after ‘death.
- Gina Lopez in her local newspaper column, expressing her whole approach to how she lived her life, referencing a quote from Anita Moorjani
- https://flyingketchup.ph/gina-lopez-a-world-that-runs-on-love/
- But while we are in this body, let’s be healthy, and contribute in whatever way we can to a world that runs on love. I have no doubt that that’s the way.
- It gave me an exposure and appreciation of how poor people live and survive,
- Gina says of her years of community immersion in nations such as Ghana, Kenya, and Tanzania.
- https://www.filipinoscribe.com/2013/03/23/gina-lopez-anti-mining-advocate/
- You cannot love God without loving the environment. God is everywhere. You can see his hand in everything. From the plants to the stars,
- It’s an awakening of the people.
- Gina says after nearly seven million people have signed an anti-mining petition. To her, it is a sign that Filipinos are finally taking a stand for the environment.
- https://www.filipinoscribe.com/2013/03/23/gina-lopez-anti-mining-advocate/
- There is no such thing as responsible mining in an island ecosystem. Companies should not break the beauty of agricultural places. Why don’t they clean up the mess they left in abandoned mining sites first? They have to prove to us that they are capable of rehabilitating those areas.
- Gina warned against the continued proliferation of large-scale mining operations in the provinces.
- https://www.filipinoscribe.com/2013/03/23/gina-lopez-anti-mining-advocate/
- For all these billions, what do we get in return? Think about the damage done by mining corporations to our biodiversity, to agriculture, and to the health of those living in the area. They don’t pay for these damages
- Wherever large-scale miners go, the communities are damaged. They remain poor. The so-called economic benefits do not benefit the people. Mining does not translate to community development. We don’t need these investors. They only rape the country.
- What the miners do to nature is very gruesome. I visit mining places and I see huge holes everywhere and red liquid flowing to the sea. Awful!
- At the end of the day, they have to face the reality. What difference are these mining companies causing them?
- Lopez citing the need for a “paradigm shift” in how Filipinos value the nation’s biodiversity.
- https://www.filipinoscribe.com/2013/03/23/gina-lopez-anti-mining-advocate/
- I am in a position to make a difference.
- Lopez on not seeing herself taking a backseat in the fight against mining.
- https://www.filipinoscribe.com/2013/03/23/gina-lopez-anti-mining-advocate/
- We have a beautiful country. Let’s not allow greed and selfishness to rape it.
- My inner self had a thirst that was not being quenched.
- Lopez stated that she had an interest in meditation.
- https://asianjournal.com/features/opinion-editorial-columnists/protecting-the-vulnerable-and-environment-the-legacy-of-gina-lopez-lives-on/
- Then I met someone in Harvard who recommended I go to an ashram that taught meditation. When I entered the ashram, apart from the meditation, they had some singing. I had an experience. I felt something deep. Tears rolled down my cheeks, I felt something I had not felt in church or in school. I had a feeling of Divine Love. That changed my life forever.
- I became a full-fledged yoga missionary. I went to Portugal, India, then Africa.
- Like all institutions, one has a goal, but often what happens is something else. As I implied earlier, I grew up in a bubble where people were good and loving and true. This results in a naïveté about people and life.
- I lived for six years in Kenya. Two of those years were in a slum area where we had to stand in line for water, and the toilet system was pathetic. It was there that I learned to value water. I had one pail, and that was it: for bathing myself and using the last bit for washing my underwear. When one doesn’t have much, one treasures every little bit. I lived as the poor lived, so I learned how not to be wasteful—a trait I carry to this day where I use every bit of everything. I learned how to value empty containers, because they can be of use eventually.
- It is in Africa that I learned the quality of persistence. Hardship has its value.
- I am well and happy. I discovered a meditation school more than 10 years ago, which has and continues to help greatly in life. My passion is to take care of the environment and address the poverty in the country. I remain convinced that we can have a country without poverty if we take care of the environment and institute mechanisms wherein the community around benefits. I have been able to do it in a few sites where the communities are able to send their kids to college in the second year, so I know it can be done.
- I’m going to do the right thing and let the dice fall where it may. And I am going to hope that maybe these politicians, even if they’re funded by mining money, must have love for God and country in their hearts.
- Lopez said when she canceled the mining permits of 28 of the country's 41 mining companies
- https://asianjournal.com/features/opinion-editorial-columnists/protecting-the-vulnerable-and-environment-the-legacy-of-gina-lopez-lives-on/
- What a waste. Everyone would have benefited from the management and care of the environment.
- Lopez said after having been denied confirmation of her appointment to her post by the Philippine Congress after 10 months in office
- https://asianjournal.com/features/opinion-editorial-columnists/protecting-the-vulnerable-and-environment-the-legacy-of-gina-lopez-lives-on/
- I got really popular [when I was] rejected from DENR, so I’m riding on a crest and I’m maneuvering all the support into building green models on the ground.
- Gina looking at the experience of losing her job as an opportunity to advance her advocacy.
- https://asianjournal.com/features/opinion-editorial-columnists/protecting-the-vulnerable-and-environment-the-legacy-of-gina-lopez-lives-on/
- One of the biggest mistakes of humanity is to foolishly think we are these physical bodies and life ends when this physical body deteriorates. The truth is that we are spirit. Living now gives us the opportunity to ‘hone’ our spirit so that it is more aligned with higher forces of truth and light.
- Life is what you make of it. The experience of life is how you see it. You can see it negatively or you can see even the seeming failures as a positive opportunity to grow. If we take on this positive bent, everyone around benefits. My consistent experience in life is that as long as one commits to integrity and service, there are Divine Forces that help. I feel it every day, when I meditate in the morning, as I do my work. Life is a challenge. There are also negative forces that exist, and they are within one’s self. One needs to be keenly aware of them.
- Gina wrote three years before she passed.
- https://asianjournal.com/features/opinion-editorial-columnists/protecting-the-vulnerable-and-environment-the-legacy-of-gina-lopez-lives-on/
- Eventually I left home. Not because things were not good, but because I had this urge to do something. Looking back at it now, I still marvel at how I did all that I did. Leaving home, renouncing everything, having two to three sets of clothes, and taking a vow of celibacy—at 18! It’s almost like a segment of my life was cut dead.
- When one doesn’t have much, one treasures every little bit. I lived as the poor lived, so I learned how not to be wasteful—a trait I carry to this day where I use every bit of everything. I learned how to value empty containers, because they can be of use eventually.
- Integrity, public service and common good are the key deciding factors for any decision that will be taken,” Lopez had said upon her appointment. “Any industry must bear in mind that the common good is paramount in their operations and not the money they make.
- Lopez had said upon her appointment as Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
- https://asianjournal.com/life-style/arts-culture/celebrating-the-beautiful-and-memorable-life-of-gina-lopez/
- I have a deep resonance with the environment. My spiritual practice is feeling the divine, entering stillness, then feeling the Higher Worlds. When one does this, one develops a very keen affinity with nature. Divine Energy is in Nature.
- If we in this country dream and hope the common good and commitment to integrity, I have no doubt in my heart and in my mind that our country will see the light of day.
- We are a country of beautiful volcanoes, mountains, rivers, and corals. It's absolutely spectacular.
- Lopez told The Ecologist in September 2017, when she won the Seacology Prize
- https://theecologist.org/2019/sep/06/remembering-gina-lopez
- Putting these open pits in a place as beautiful as the Philippines is disgustingly horrible. If you have any sense of aesthetics, how can you do that! And when you learn that there are communities there whose lives have been disadvantaged, your heart breaks.
- And all of these open pit mines are near rivers and streams. All of them. They are going to be there for all eternity. They will have to be detoxified on a regular basis, otherwise they will turn acidic. And all of these open pits will be a financial liability to government for life.
- I would go around with the media and take footage myself. People were shocked at the pictures.
- Lopez documented how mines destroy the environment, gathering evidence as shed went.
- https://theecologist.org/2019/sep/06/remembering-gina-lopez
- You are stepping on very big business toes.
- God has put me in a place and I feel that I am responsible.
- What I do is I follow my heart and right now, my heart wants to do this.
- Lopez explaining why she was pursuing her pro-poor advocacy in a private capacity instead of running for a public office
- https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/08/19/19/gina-lopez-earth-warrior-dies-at-65
- I felt something I had not felt in church or in school. I had a feeling of Divine Love. That changed my life forever.
- I was constantly looking for money to survive and take care of the children I was responsible for.
- It is much better to live according to principle than according to rules, because situations in life change.
- In areas where I’ve cleaned up the creeks and made the place more beautiful, 97 percent of the people have more peace of mind, 97 percent of people are happier.
- When you’re stressed, you go to a place which is beautiful and healing and peaceful.
- A good way to have new beginnings is to move from one phase to the next in grace. Bring closure. Smooth out the rough edges. It feels so much better.
- Any kind of mining operation in a watershed, that’s like saying that the gold and the nickel are more important than the water that our people drink.
- If I had calculated and maneuvered, I would never have forgiven myself.
- Lopez said even before she took the job that she “decided to be true to [herself].
- https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/08/19/19/gina-lopez-earth-warrior-dies-at-65
- How can it be responsible to do open pit mining in a country that is most vulnerable to climate change?
- If there is responsible mining why is it that wherever there is mining, there is poverty? The poorest sites in the country are mining areas.
- We have the most beautiful country: 7,000 islands with coral reefs, mountains, rivers and forests with rare medicinal plants. We have the highest biodiversity on the planet. But our people are not benefiting from it. It is being destroyed because someone wants gold or nickel.
- Yes, mining creates a few jobs and perhaps a few schools, and a few people enrich themselves, but thousands suffer and water sources are polluted for generations afterward. Mining is just greed and selfishness.
- I believe that through care of the environment and adequate marketing, communities can get out of poverty in record time. The mainstream performance indicators are way more impressive than that of mining, which has been going for over a hundred years and has nothing to show for it, except the enrichment of a few and the destruction for generations to come.
- The environment is not separate from us, we are part of it.
- We cannot protect what we do not love.
- The earth does not belong to us, we belong to the earth.
- We are stewards of the environment, not owners.
- The future of our planet lies in our hands, let's take care of it.
- Every action we take has an impact on the environment, choose wisely.
- Nature is our greatest teacher, let's learn from it.
- We need to shift from a mindset of exploitation to one of stewardship.
- Protecting the environment is not a choice, it is a responsibility.
- The beauty of nature is a gift, let's cherish and protect it.
- I get a kick out of helping people.
- I wouldn’t have been exposed to that if I stayed in Forbes Park all my life.
- Lopez shared after she joined a religious organization and stayed in Africa for 20 years.
- https://peopleasia.ph/an-heiress-who-made-a-difference-environmentalist-and-childrens-rights-advocate-gina-lopez-passes-away-at-65/
- Just watch me, I will transform this into a paradise for children.
- Gina Lopez once told President Arroyo as her greatest achievement for her Bantay Bata project, referring to a Children’s Village that provided shelter to around 140 abused children.
- https://peopleasia.ph/an-heiress-who-made-a-difference-environmentalist-and-childrens-rights-advocate-gina-lopez-passes-away-at-65/
- It’s a consciousness thing. There are different levels of being and one continues to evolve. The people who are apathetic will not be that way forever. Life is a constant state of evolution. The universe will always see to it that everyone grows.
- Gina's view on turning the apathy in others into passion.
- https://peopleasia.ph/an-heiress-who-made-a-difference-environmentalist-and-childrens-rights-advocate-gina-lopez-passes-away-at-65/
- Education, nutrition, environment, money — these are simple, important things that make life complete. The economic numbers alone don’t translate into the nation’s progress.
- You can quote me on this. Politics is really messy. All I want to do is just to save water.
- Lopez referring to her plan to close 75 mining companies operating in watershed areas
- https://peopleasia.ph/an-heiress-who-made-a-difference-environmentalist-and-childrens-rights-advocate-gina-lopez-passes-away-at-65/
- It is the constitutional right of every Filipino to a clean and healthy environment. It was a dream and a promise we had for the country and it is unfortunate that business interests have in fact run the day.
- What I’m doing is life. You need to sustain life. Maybe from that comes a deeper and more enlightened perception of what is needed to sustain life, and the role of the environment in the sustenance of life.
- If we kill our land, our water, our air for whatever reason, you kill life. For me, you kill the constitutional right of a Filipino, which is the right to a clean and healthy environment. Here it is forces of greed and selfishness that threaten life. I see the government as the only institution that’s in the position to curtail the forces of greed and selfishness. It’s the role of government to do that.
- The damage was urgent and I needed to act with urgency.
- Lopez o n pursuing her goal to install more oversight of Philippine polluters without regard to her job security.
- https://news.mongabay.com/2017/05/the-rise-and-fall-of-regina-lopez-the-philippines-maverick-environment-minister/
- I’m not a politician. That’s not who I am.
- Lopez replying to the Catholic Church convincing her to run for president.
- https://news.mongabay.com/2017/05/the-rise-and-fall-of-regina-lopez-the-philippines-maverick-environment-minister/
- I support him because he believes in helping people. He’s sincere about that. He really is. It’s in his heart. I admire him for that. We agree on a lot of things. I told him give me one year, maybe two years. I’ll make a difference. If I don’t I’ll leave. He said okay.
- What Gina Lopez says of President Duterte.
- https://news.mongabay.com/2017/05/the-rise-and-fall-of-regina-lopez-the-philippines-maverick-environment-minister/
- Each open pit is a financial liability for government for life," Lopez told a media briefing. "It kills the economic potential of the place.
- It's the mandate of the mining law that you should not do anything which puts at risk the lives of present and future generations.
- If you killed the Environment, you kill everything.
- And whose duty is it to protect our people? It's the government. And when you make decisions based on business interests, you have shirked your responsibility. You have lost the moral ascendancy to rule the government because to you, business and money is more important than the welfare of our people.
- Gina Lopez’s passionate anti-mining protest goes viral again. ABS-CBN. Retrieved December 15, 2025.
- I’m going to do the right thing and let the dice fall where it may.
- I’m going to do the right thing and let the dice fall where it may.
- One of the biggest mistakes of humanity is to foolishly think we are these physical bodies and life ends when this physical body deteriorates.
- Life is what you make of it. The experience of life is how you see it.
- Protecting the vulnerable and environment: The legacy of Gina Lopez lives on. ABS-CBN. Retrieved December 15, 2025.
- We’re not small! We should believe we can fly.
- I believe that through care of the environment and good marketing, communities can get out of poverty very quickly.
- I don't like suffering and I don't like injustice.
