Tree planting pushed as graduation requirement

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Councilor Edgardo Labella wants tree planting as a mandatory requirement for all graduating elementary and high school students.

 Labella is proposing that graduating students should be made to plant in public lands at least 10 seedlings before graduation.

 He said he will ask his fellow city legislators to support his proposal for the Department of Education to require all students in various public elementary and high schools to plant trees.

 President Benigno Aquino III earlier issued Executive Order No. 26 requiring students and government employees to plant 1.5 billion trees on 1.5 million hectares of public lands under the national greening program.

 The students and government workers are required to plant trees in forest lands, mangrove and protected areas, ancestral domains, civil and military reservations, urban areas under the greening plan of the various local government units.

 “For the successful implementation of national greening program, the said order requires all students identified by the education officials and all government employees to plant a minimum of 10 seedlings per year in areas determined by the Convergence Initiative,” Labella said.

 The President’s directive provides that other government institutions like Department of Agriculture, Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and Department of Environment and Natural Resources will be the ones to produce good quality seedlings annually for the National Greening Program.

 According to Labella, DepEd is pushing to make planting of trees a requirement for graduation in public elementary and high schools to complement the initiative of the President, but it should be strictly implemented.

 Even before the move of Labella is deliberated by the City Council in tomorrow’s session, DepEd Secretary Armin Luistro has reportedly agreed to it.

It was not however known if this will be implemented for those who will be graduating this year. — (FREEMAN)