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80-YEAR-OLD POET OF GREEN AWARENESS GETS AWARD
Barbara Mae Dacanay, Bureau Chief
gulfnews.com
April 22, 2008
Manila: An 80-year-old retired professor has received an award for his book of poems in Filipino that helped take environment issues to the masses, particularly the younger generation, a local paper said.
"My works can effectively educate the public about environmental issues," Professor Tomas Ongoco, president of the Quezon City Academy, told the Inquirer.
Ongoco was one of six recipients of the Father Neri Satur Award for environmental heroism. The awards were given by the Earth Savers Movement.
Youth appeal
"Essays are no longer appealing to the youth of today. They seldom go to the library," Ongoco replied when asked why he chose to write poetry. His book Rain in Drought was written in 2004 and published in 2006.
Ongoco said he was happy to receive the award just ahead of Earth Day, which will be observed today.
"We have been giving this award in honour of Fr Neri who was martyred for protecting the forests of Bukidnon province, in the southern Philippines in 1991," said former senator Heherson Alvarez, founder of Earth Savers Movement.
Ongoco last month translated former US vice president Al Gore's Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth into Filipino.
He was an elementary and high school teacher from 1952 to 1964.
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