House passes one billion trees bill

Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr.’s One Billion Trees Bill was passed on third and final reading by the House of Representatives last Dec. 18.

“The House responded to the Bali Summit on time,” De Venecia declared after 204 lawmakers approved in plenary session House Bill 375, more popularly known as the Billion Trees Act of 2007.

“We are now on record as the first Congress or Parliament in the world to respond decisively to the urgent appeal of the Bali Summit for the global planting of trees.”

De Venecia said a new Bali protocol to battle worsening climate change should “incorporate a massive global reforestation program to fight the environmentally lethal carbon dioxide emissions.”

The Bali Summit paved the way for the evolution of a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol to sustain, strengthen and synchronize global efforts by some 190 countries in the urgent war against climate change.

The measure was approved in previous Congresses but remained unacted upon by the Senate, although it “gained the full support of some 123 multi-partisan House members who signed as co-authors of the bill.” It was filed in the 12th Congress.

“Among other vital benefits to life, we should plant trees to minimize soil erosion, flashfloods, silting of rivers and dams, drought and other negative consequences through rehabilitation of degraded watershed areas,” De Venecia said.    – Delon Porcalla