Regina Paz "Gina" La'o Lopez (Tagalog: [ˈdʒinɐ ˈlɔpɛs]; 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.
[3] Gina was the daughter of ABS-CBN Chairman Emeritus Eugenio Lopez Jr. of Iloilo and Conchita La'o of Manila.
[3] After studying in the United States, Lopez left her privileged life in Manila and became a yoga missionary for twenty dedicated years and lived in Portugal, India, and Africa.
[8] She produced educational television shows on Science, Math, Values, History and English for elementary and Philippine Literature for high school.
She was also responsible for the reforestation of the La Mesa Watershed Reservation, the last remaining forest zone in Metro Manila.
Lopez also launched the Save Palawan Movement along with her partner organizations and gathered 7 million signatures for a petition for protection of key biodiversity areas and against mining.
A few days later, she accepted the offer and was formally appointed by the president to head the Department of Environment and Natural Resources or DENR.
This led to a massive public show of support for Lopez's work as DENR secretary and an apology to her for the grilling she suffered on social media.
Few of the many notable certificates that were stripped were those for mining companies doing operations in Semirara Island (a key biodiversity area) in Antique, Eastern Samar, Surigao del Sur which is home to indigenous Lumad communities, and Cordillera Administrative Region, which is the melting pot of the northern Luzon indigenous people.
The Nuclear Power Plant in Bataan will only contribute to less than 0.5% to the National Energy Grid when operated and its costs will be much higher, making it unsustainable.
[14] In a public announcement, she told the media that all buffer zones in all protected areas in the country shall also be revitalized into their natural state.
She was also pushing for the establishment of numerous protected areas in the country such as the West Panay Mountain Range National Park.
[17] She was the second member of President Rodrigo Duterte's cabinet to be rejected by the Commission on Appointments following former Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay.
In a press conference after the announcement of her rejection, Lopez thanked the eight CA members who "voted according to their conscience" and urged the legislators to look after the needs of the poor and not of big businesses.
It was revealed that newly appointed DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu supported the lifting of the ban, causing outrage from environmental organizations.
She died of multiple organ failure related to the disease at Makati Medical Center on August 19, 2019, at the age of 65.