5 Decades, 5 Champions: Dr. Romana de los Reyes
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In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, we will be featuring 5 local Environmental Defenders who tirelessly fought and championed their respective environmental causes in the last 5 decades.
Dr. Romana de los Reyes is from Bago City, Negros Occidental. She has been an anti- coal plant activist since 1997 and convened the Negrosanons against the Coal-Fired Power Plant (NACP). In the five years that they organized and mobilized, she and other women leaders have led their communities into successful campaigns of stopping coal-fired power plants from being built in Bago City, Silay City, Cadiz City, and Pulupundan.
The youth of Negros is inspired by her, and through their continued activism, an executive order was finally signed last March 6, 2019 declaring Negros Occidental as a source of clean and renewable energy and a coal-free province.
“Believe that you have the power to change what is not right. Work with other people; be selfless. Remember a campaign or an advocacy is not about you, it’s about a bigger issue of protecting life and Mother Earth.
Have another life that fills in the moments beyond your advocacy. My other world, for example, consists of my garden, the birds, and butterflies, moths and other insects in it. Find your own other world which will sustain your activism.”