MANILA, Philippines — Former lawmaker, rights advocate and environmentalist Heherson Alvarez passed away on April 20 after contracting COVID-19. He was 80.
Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto III confirmed Alvarez's death in reports where he was quoted as sharing his grief over learning the passing of Alvarez. He recalled that his former colleague was a “fighter.”
“It was an honor for me to have served with him in the 9th Congress. I learned a lot from him,” Sotto also said.
PDP-Laban spokesman Ron Munsayac wrote in an Instagram post that the party is grieving over the passing of Alvarez, its “party stalwart.”
Alvarez and his wife, Cecile Guidote-Alvarez, were infected by the novel coronavirus.
Early in April their children asked for prayers for their father who had been moved to a newly-opened Intensive Care Unit-COVID-19 wing for close monitoring.
In the same post dated April 6, Hexilon Alvarez and Xilca Alvarez-Protacio said their mother, who founded the Philippine Educational Theater Association, had been extubated or taken off the ventilator and was breathing comfortably.
In a statement on April 15, Xilca said her father was set to undergo experimental plasma therapy, where blood of COVID-19 survivors is transfused to critically-ill patients.
Human rights fighter
Columnist Manuel Quezon III remembered Alvarez as a “resister fighting for democracy and freedom.”
Alvarez’s political career started partly when he was a student activist, he recalled in a 2002 interview with The STAR.
He recalled: “Learning happened in the classroom of the streets. We took our academic life in stride but viewed political and social change very seriously.”
He finished college in the University of the Philippines and his master’s degree in Economics and Public Administration from Harvard University.
In 1971, Alvarez was elected as delegate to the Constitutional Convention where he sat with former presidents Diosdado Macapagal and Carlos P. Garcia. He was one of the youngest delegates then, and was also one of the “few who refused to sign the Marcos-dictated Constitution,” according to his website.
In fighting the Marcos dictatorship, Alvarez said in an interview in The STAR: “Resistance to martial rule came naturally.”
He also evaded a shoot-to-kill order from the government with the help of friends such as Ricky Delgado who helped him contact a ship captain who eventually took him to Hong Kong.
“Cecile had a PETA artist, Len Santos, disguise me. I had a new haircut, and I walked with a limp carrying a box like a member of the crew,” he was quoted in the interview.
He later lived in exile in the United States.
An outstanding lawmaker and a fighter for the environment
The following year, Alvarez started his career as a lawmaker.
He crafted laws at the Senate for more than a decade, from 1987 to 1998. For ten years, he sat as chair of the Committee on Environment.
“He has been at the forefront of the environment movement both in the Senate and in the Congress,” his profile at the Senate website read.
“Practically all the laws and initiatives in environmental issues were launched by him,” it further read.
Asked what law he authored that he takes pride in, Alvarez told The STAR that it was the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law which “enabled the country to give 400,000 hectares to landless farmers in the countryside.”
He was also the man behind the Clean Air Act and the National Integrated Protected Areas System Act.
He founded the Earth Savers Movement and penned the resolution declaring April 22 of every year as “Earth Day.”
He was also the representative of Isabela's Fourth District from 1998-2001.
In the executive branch, Alvarez previously held the positions of secretary of the Departments of Agrarian Reform and Environment and Natural Resources.
He also headed the Climate Change Commission.