House OKs bill promoting environment awareness

The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading a bill seeking to heighten public awareness on the importance of the environment.

Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte said House Bill 3821, which he authored, would compel local government officials nationwide to declare an Arbor Day — or Tree Day — every year.

"Local governments would fix the suitable date every calendar year, and decide whether or not to declare it a territorial public holiday," he said.

Villafuerte said Arbor Day is celebrated in many parts of the world, where the occasion is devoted to planting trees.

"Arbor Day is a grand opportunity for everyone, including homeowners and business entities, to take stock of the trees in their properties and communities, and to plan how to best propagate and care for trees," he said.

Villafuerte said as proposed in his bill, which has already been sent to the Senate, every province, city and municipality would be required to create an Arbor Day celebrations committee.

"Trees are vital cogs of nature’s air purification process," he said.

"They are our airconditioners and air purifiers, and our built-in energy-saving devises. Our atmosphere today would be far more heated, and our air far more lethal, if not for our trees.

"Apart from naturally enriching and protecting our farmlands, providing us food, comfort and enjoyment, trees also shield us from annihilative flooding and destructive winds."

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has launched the Green Philippine Highways Program to seek to tap two million volunteers to plant 58 million trees along major thoroughfares, from Laoag City in Northern Luzon to Davao City in Southern Mindanao.

Arbor Day is celebrated in Australia, Canada, China, Iceland, India, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the former Yugoslavia, among others.

The term "Arbor" comes from Latin, and it means "Tree."

The first Arbor Day took place on April 10, 1871 in Nebraska in the United States.

It was the brainchild of journalist Julius Sterling Morton, who launched the first community-based tree-planting campaign. — Delon Porcalla