36 Facts About Gina Lopez

Gina Lopez was previously the Chairperson of the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission under two consecutive administrations.

Gina Lopez had six siblings and the sister of Eugenio Lopez III.

Gina Lopez went to Assumption College and Newton College of the Sacred Heart in Boston.

Gina Lopez met her future husband in Africa with whom she had two sons.

Gina Lopez became an Ananda Marga yoga missionary who taught yoga, and ran pre-primary schools and children's homes for the underprivileged.

Gina Lopez lived among the people of slum areas in Africa guided by the slogan 'Service to humanity is service to God'.

Gina Lopez became the managing director of the ABS-CBN Foundation.

Gina Lopez initiated Bantay Bata 163, the country's first media-based hotline.

Gina Lopez established Bantay Kalikasan, for which she received the 1997 International Public Relations Award of Excellence for the Environment and outstanding Manilans Award for the Environment, 2009.

Gina Lopez produced educational television shows on Science, Math, Values, History and English for elementary and Philippine Literature for high school.

Gina Lopez was honored with the UNESCo Kalinga Award, the first Southeast Asian to earn such a distinction.

Gina Lopez was the vice-chairperson of the ABS-CBN Bayan Foundation, which provides microfinance assistance to micro-entrepreneurs.

Gina Lopez was the Chairman Emeritus of the Southeast Asian Children's Television.

Gina Lopez initiated the rehabilitation of the Pasig River and nearby urban streams through the Kapit Bisig para sa Ilog Pasig project.

Gina Lopez was responsible for the reforestation of the La Mesa Watershed Reservation, the last remaining forest zone in Metro Manila.

Gina Lopez 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.

Gina Lopez was a vehement anti-mining advocate, known for her stance against large-scale mining in the province of Palawan.

Gina Lopez objected to the use of fossil fuels as sources of energy and coal mining.

Gina Lopez was grilled by social media on her appointment because of her family name, Lopez, which is much regarded as a Filipino business tycoon surname.

Gina Lopez hit the ground running on the very first day in office.

Gina Lopez audited all mining sites and firms in the entire country and stripped environmental certificates from a chunk of the mining industry due to massive violations against the environment and the law, the first time a secretary of environment had done so.

Gina Lopez said that there would be no mining operations of any form on Palawan, which is popularly known as the last ecological frontier of the country.

Gina Lopez immediately established forums for consultations between the DENR and the indigenous people sector in the Philippines, the first time a DENR secretary did so.

Gina Lopez established the first ever DENR public hotline wherein the public could report all environmental violations of any entity in the country directly to the DENR and her office.

Gina Lopez was against nuclear energy due to years of research on the matter.

Gina Lopez preferred the establishment of more wind and solar power plants, which are massively cheaper and sustainable in the long-run, and the possible cooperation of the Philippines and Australia to establish the first wave energy plants in Asia.

Gina Lopez was pushing for the establishment of numerous protected areas in the country such as the West Panay Mountain Range National Park.

Gina Lopez announced that the UP Arboretum would be an ecological paradise where the informal settlers in the area will be the partners for its development.

Gina Lopez was called a symbol and champion of environmental conservation in the country ever since.

Gina Lopez 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.

Gina Lopez hosted an environmental show on ABS-CBN, entitled G Diaries, which premiered on June 4,2017.

Gina Lopez became the first Filipino to be awarded the prestigious Seacology Prize on October 5,2017, in Berkeley, California.

Gina Lopez has fought for the Philippines environment and gave island communities there a voice in the decisions that affect their natural resources and their lives.

Gina Lopez died of multiple organ failure related to the disease at Makati Medical Center on August 19,2019, at the age of 65.

In February 2020, the ABS-CBN Foundation Building was renamed to Gina Lopez Building in her honor.

Gina Lopez was portrayed by Paula Peralejo in the 1995 film Eskapo.