SECRETARY MARIA ANTONIA YULO LOYZAGA

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Department of Environment and Natural Resources
Trustee, DAP Board of Trustees

Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo Loyzaga currently heads the Department of Environment and Natural Resources of the Philippines.

Since her appointment, she has been designated by President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. as head of the Philippine delegation to five major conferences: the 2022 Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27, United Nations Biodiversity Conference COP15, United Nations Water Conference, and the United Nations High-Level Meeting on the Midterm Review of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. She chairs the Cabinet Cluster on Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation, and Disaster Risk Reduction and represents President Marcos on the Climate Change Commission as chairperson.

Secretary Loyzaga previously served as the president of the National Resilience Council (NRC), a science and technology-based public-private partnership aimed at implementing the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the Paris Climate Agreement. She was a member of the United Nations International Office for Disaster Risk Reduction’s UNDRR Asia Pacific Science Technology Advisory Group and also served as a Director of the UNDRR’s Alliance for Disaster Resilient Societies Philippines initiative, where NRC leads the Disaster Risk Management Strategies work theme.

She also served on the Science Advisory Board of the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk International Center of Excellence-Taipei and was a governing board member of the Future Earth Global Secretariat Hub-Taipei. She was a trustee of the Zuellig Family Foundation, the Manila Observatory, Ateneo de Naga University, and the Forest Foundation Philippines, where she also served as treasurer.

Before these appointments, Secretary Loyzaga was the executive director of the Manila Observatory from 2007-2016 and a trustee of Ateneo de Manila University from 2007 to 2017. During this period, she was appointed to the Department of Science and Technology-Committee on Space Technology Applications and to the UNESCO National Commission’s Committee on Science and Technology.

In 2013, she was recognized by the Armed Forces of the Philippines for her contributions to the Philippine military’s emergency disaster response operations during Super Typhoon Haiyan.

She holds a Master of Arts degree in Government from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Ateneo de Manila University.