Gloria "Golly" Estenzo Ramos
Country Leader
Gloria "Golly" Estenzo Ramos is the Country Leader of Oceana in the Philippines. Oceana Philippines (http://ph.oceana.org/) seeks to restore the health, richness, and abundance of the fisheries and work for its sustainable management.
Before joining Oceana in 2014, Atty. Ramos was a lawyer-advocate for the environment, women and children’s rights and good governance.
In behalf of the whales and dolphins affected by the offshore drilling for oil in Tañon Strait, she sued with a co- lady guardian to stop the destructive activity and won, together with the fisherfolk, in a landmark decision rendered by the Supreme Court in April, 2015.
In 2010, she co-founded the Phil. Earth Justice Center, Inc. (“PEJC”) with four Cebu-based environmental lawyers. PEJC institutes legal actions to protect rights to life, health and healthy environment. Appointed Deputy Chair for the Visayas of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, National Environmental Action Team (NEAT) in 2003, she was also a co-convenor of Green Forum (2005), Save Tañon Strait Citizen’s Movement (STSCM- 2007), Global Legal Action on Climate Change (GLACC), an alliance of stakeholders promoting empowerment of the people and a culture of compliance with the laws, and Visayan Climate Action Network, which aims to empower communities in responding to climate change, launched in 2009.
Ms. Ramos was a faculty member of the University of Cebu (UC) College of Law, for 12 years. She served as the 1st Director of its Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) Program for Lawyers and represented Southeast Asia as director of the Board of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law.
As an educator, she inculcates the spirit of volunteerism among law students and integrates community partnership in the course requirements. Under the trail-blazing Popularizing the Law Program of UC College of Law, her students monitored the level of compliance of the Solid Waste Management Law, among barangays in the cities of Cebu and Mandaue and set up websites, among others, on anti-red tape, solid waste management to inform and guide stakeholders and decision-makers. In partnership with public schools and mountain barangays, the law students also shared their knowledge of the Law with the community.
Ms. Ramos is a resource speaker on environment, human rights and governance and a Cebu Daily News columnist since 2007.She was awarded the Best Columnist in the 2015 Globe Media Excellence Award.
She is an alumna of the University of the Philippines – Diliman, Quezon City, where she obtained her degrees in Master of Public Administration (2003), Bachelor of Laws (1979) and Bachelor of Arts, major in Political Science (1974). She is proudest in her role as a mother to four wonderful children. She is married to Dante, likewise a member of the Bar, also a co-founder of PEJC.