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Environment advocate Oscar Lopez marks 88th birthday with children’s book

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Trishia Billones, ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/tvpatrol/05/02/kidzania7.jpg"/><figcaption>Oscar M. Lopez (2nd from right), chairman emeritus of First Philippine Holdings Corporation, poses for a photo during the launch of the book &quot;On the Trail with Tata Oskie&quot; with author Carla Pacis, illustrator Mikaela Balita, and his grandchild Marianna Vargas.</figcaption></figure></div>MANILA – Oscar M. Lopez realized his passion for trees and the environment when he was about 8 years old, while basking in nature&#x27;s grandeur during his climb to the top of mountains.When he was exposed to the media (since his family owned newspaper company Manila Chronicle) in the 60s, he realized he wanted to expand this love, so he started publishing the magazine “Better Farms and Gardens.”After the fall of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986, one of Lopez’s first projects was the reforestation of a denuded mountain in Antipolo, recalled his eldest child, Cedie L. Vargas.Vargas said her brothers told her that once, they were flying with their father on the way to one of their power plants and they passed by a barren area and he told them, &quot;if only I had seeds with me, I would sprinkle it out of the plane so it would take root and grow.&quot;&quot;He’s always had this lifelong love for trees and reforesting barren areas…He has always had this quest for trying to find areas to reform and plant trees,&quot; she said.The love Lopez had for the environment and taking care of it are the subject of a book published in celebration of his 88th birthday.Entitled “On the Trail with Tata Oskie,” the book follows a young Marianna, Lopez’s only granddaughter with Cedie, as she joins the family hike for the first time. Throughout the trip, her grandfather introduced her to many different trees and the stories behind them.<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/tvpatrol/05/02/kidzania-4.jpg"/><figcaption>Marianne Vargas, partnerships head of the OML Center for Climate Change, reads part of the book, &quot;On the Trail with Tata Oskie,&quot; during the launch. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News</figcaption></figure></div>“If there&#x27;s one lesson that I learned from my Tata, it&#x27;s the inextricable link between maintaining the environment and maintaining social equity,” Marianna said during the book launch at KidZania Manila.&quot;Here and now that we&#x27;re dealing with climate change, let us be guided by one of the principles that my Tata taught me: this is our common home and we have a collective responsibility to protect it,&quot; she added.Marianna, now 26, heads the partnerships arm of the Oscar M. Lopez Center for Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management Foundation officers, a research center named after her grandfather.Vargas, executive director of the Lopez Group Foundation and Lopez Museum, recalled that her father, now the chairman emeritus of First Philippine Holdings Corporation, led their family by example &quot;to stop by a tree, meditate, reflect, and take notice of it.&quot;Carla Pacis, a long-time friend of the Lopez family, was teary-eyed as she recalled how the short timetable for writing the book was made easy by decades of memories with the Lopez Group patriarch and his children as well as the anecdotes shared by Marianna.“This book is my way of thanking Tito Oski and Tita Connie (Lopez&#x27;s wife) for all those wonderful weekends and friendships that are deep, true and forever,” she said.<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/tvpatrol/05/02/kidzania-5.jpg"/><figcaption>Carla Pacis, the book&#x27;s author, gives a short introduction about writing the story which celebrates the life of Oscar M. Lopez. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News</figcaption></figure></div>Copies of the book will be distributed to public schools in June, with 7 more novelettes to complete the series, coming in the next few years.Marianna said she hopes the book will help make Filipino children &quot;realize the beauty and the value of the country that they live in, especially the ecological value that we have in the Philippines and be able to know how better to protect it.&quot;&quot;That’s what my Lolo imparted to me and I think it’s very important for Filipino children everywhere to realize we have a very beautiful country and it’s our job and responsibility to make sure that it stays beautiful and we protect it,&quot; she said.

Oscar M. Lopez realized his passion for trees and the environment when he was about 8 years old, while basking in nature's grandeur during his climb to the top of mountains.

Oscar M. Lopez realized his passion for trees and the environment when he was about 8 years old, while basking in nature's grandeur during his climb to the top of mountains.

Environment advocate Oscar Lopez marks 88th birthday with children’s book

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Environment advocate Oscar Lopez marks 88th birthday with children’s book

Trishia Billones,

ABS-CBN News

Published May 04, 2018 08:15 PM PHT

|

Updated May 05, 2018 08:01 AM PHT

Read More:

Oscar Lopez

Marianna Vargas

Cedie Vargas

Cedie L. Vargas

On the Trail with Tata Oskie

Lopez Group Foundation

OML Center for Climate Change

book launch

Lopez family

environment

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