Belmonte backs renaming La Mesa Ecopark after Gina Lopez
The initiative of the Quezon City Council to rename La Mesa Ecopark after the late former Environment Secretary Gina Lopez was backed by Mayor Joy Belmonte.
Lopez passed away on 19 August at 65. “We support the moves by the council to name La Mesa Ecopark after the late Gina Lopez. Her legacy deserves to live on in that park,” Belmonte said.
Quezon City councilors Winston Castelo and Candy Medina filed separate resolutions seeking to rename the La Mesa Dam Ecopark to the Gina Lopez Ecopark.
The mayor said she has already requested the Quezon City Council, headed by Vice Mayor Gian Sotto, to expedite the aforementioned resolutions amid calls from environmentalists to rename the park in honor of Lopez’s legacy for the environment.
Lopez, chairman of ABS-CBN’s Lingkod Kapamilya Foundation, established Bantay Kalikasan in 1999 as the foundation’s environmental arm to aid relief to victims of natural calamities such as typhoons in the country.
Through Bantay Kalikasan, Lopez championed the rehabilitation of the 2,700-hectare La Mesa Watershed and the development of the 32-hectare La Mesa Ecopark.
The mayor recently paid tribute to Lopez in a Facebook post, saying their working relationship revolved largely on her love for the environment and her passion for all that she did to protect it for a sustainable future.
“We worked with her on cleaning up our waterways and in deputizing environmental warriors in our city,” Belmonte said.