La Mesa Celebrity Cup at Sta. Elena

A fund-raising golf tournament, aimed at saving the La Mesa Watershed project, will be held July 10 at the Sta. Elena Golf and Country Club in Sta. Rosa, Laguna with the country's top golfing celebrities expected to see action.

Noted civic-minded groups from various sectors are spearheading the one-day, invitational event, called La Mesa Celebrity Cup, and being put up to reforest Metro Manila's key reservoir from where 12 million Filipinos get their water.

"We want to protect a watershed that is vital to life in Metro Manila and which is the last remaining forest of its size in the metropolis," said executive committee co-chair Loryvi Valdes during the launching of the event yesterday at the Rockwell Club in Makati.

Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has been invited to hit the ceremonial ball and grace the tournament, a two-man team event which will be played under the Stableford scoring format although an individual competition is also lined up.

Other members of the organizing committee are co-chair Cynthia Carrion-Norton, and Chiqui Locsin, Carla Benares-Andaya, Raul Manzano, Raquel Delgado-Garcia, Frannie Aguinaldo-Jacinto, Merle Tantoco-Pineda, Hermie Esguerra, Anthon Garcia and Dulce Festin-Baybay.

The Save the La Mesa Watershed Project is an undertaking by the Bantay Kalikasan of ABS-CBN Foundation, which hopes to plan narra and mahogany seedlings on 1,200 hectares of the watershed.