It is with deep sadness that we mourn the passing of one of the true friends of our organization, a constant inspiration and guiding light. Gina Lopez not only showed us what is possible for the Philippines if we serve truthfully and with love, she gave opportunities for Filipino technology to demonstrate its capabilities in her advocacy for the environment. Gina is a true “Eco-philanthropist,” and she’s shown us through love and hard work, that we can be such, as well.
MANILA, Philippines — Gina Lopez joked, “the MD after my name should be changed from Managing Director to QD… for Quack Doctor!” She had the self-awareness to acknowledge that in her battle with what had then become Stage-4 Brain Cancer, she has gone wildly off-script. She was trying to tell all of us that day, that she was winning the fight: through her diet, her meditation, and through a battery of alternative treatments she showed off in a tour of her home. She was not fond of staying in hospitals, and between the strength of her disdain and her will to make more out of every second of her life, she was leading us again, our Chairperson of the Board.
It was as if she was the Gina I first met ten years ago. I was in my own way, an advocate of the environment developing treatment technologies for sewage and waste water, and I just had to meet her. I just had to meet this lady, this warrior who boldly said she would rehabilitate the Pasig River one estero at a time; that she will show the Philippines that it was “pwede pala,” by first taking on one of the dirtiest esteros of Manila. Legend has it that when one wanted to commit suicide, one just leapt into the Estero de Paco. You’d be dead from the smell before you hit the water.
I went up to her personally and introduced myself. As many of her friends would know, Gina was a very open and trusting person and we since got along very well indeed. However, as much as I had committed my expertise to her cause, advising her on technology matters in river rehabilitation pro-bono, I still needed convincing: It was not possible to clean Estero de Paco as long as the informal settlers remained there, living on the water itself, using the estero as their open sewer, nay, communal toilet. The only chance we had was if she was going to be successful at relocating all these informal settlers and instituting the 3-meter easement regulation to protect both people (from flood risks), and the river (from direct pollution sources).
