Former mayor honored thru tree planting

CEBU, Philippines — A tree-planting activity in honor of the late mayor Edgardo Labella is set next week by the Cebu City Hall employees.

The activity is set as Labella marks his first death anniversary.

Labella won as mayor in 2019, with Michael Rama as his vice mayor.

Labella, however, was not able to realize all his visions for the city when the Covid-19 pandemic happened in 2020.

Labella had also been in and out of the hospital and mostly been working from home in 2020 and 2021 until he succumbed to “septic shock secondary to pneumonia.”

When Labella died, Rama took over as mayor while the city’s first Councilor Donaldo Hontiveros ascended as vice-mayor.

Rama said he wanted to have a lasting memory of his partner, Edgardo Labella, by finishing the projects they had been envisioning as well as through tree-planting activities.

For the City Hall employees, the tree-planting event will be done in batches in a span of four days next week.

“Weekday but bahinon ang employees para naay mabilin sa opisina, four days. Di pwede magdungan tanan, lisod saka sa bukid,” City Administrator Suzanne Ardosa said.

Aside from that, Rama is looking into having more tree-planting activities in the future, especially with the increasing problem of global warming and climate change.

Landslides and massive flooding had been experienced by the city, thus, the need to have more trees.

Rama told The FREEMAN earlier that tree-planting activities and other greening projects can be done even in one’s backyard. — GAN (FREEMAN)