By Mary May A. Abellon
DIPOLOG CITY – Some 500 participants from the different government and private organizations joined the TreeVolution: Greening MindaNOW activity on Friday, Sept. 29 in the two planting sites at Puting Bato, Barangay Upper Dicayas this city.
Among those who joined the simultaneous tree planting activity were officials and employees of the city government of Dipolog, Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP), Department of Education (DepEd), Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), 101st Infantry Brigade Philippine Army, Zamboanga del Norte Provincial Public Safety Command (PPSC), Dipolog City Police Officers, members of the Medical Doctors Association, Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) beneficiaries, Pilipinas Natin, religious groups, fraternities, media, non-government organizations as well as students from St. Vincent’s College and Jose Rizal Memorial State University.
While the barangay health workers of Upper Dicayas served as medical and rescue team for the said event, some policemen were also sent to secure the entire planting sites.
Protected Area Wildlife & Coastal Zone Management Specialist and TreeVolution focal person Elsie Adorable of CENRO-Dipolog reminded the participants before the start of the activity that they should not take photos but just concentrate on planting trees during the hour-long activity.
“There will be official photographer and videographer to document our activity today. We also have here our secretariat, stewards, independent witness, site marshals and official time keeper to assist and facilitate the success of our activity,” Adorable explained.
At exactly 8:30 a.m., a whistle was blown to signal the start of the one-hour simultaneous tree planting. All the six regions of Mindanao participated in the said activity.
Planters were also not allowed to go out of the planting sites before the end of the activity at 9:30 a.m.; otherwise, points would be deducted from the total number of participants.
After the simultaneous tree planting activity, the website of Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) reported that a total of 3, 373, 763 trees were planted in six regions of Mindanao by 183, 858 planters.
This figure already surpassed India’s record of having planted 1,945,535 trees simultaneously for an hour in various locations.
However, the Philippine entry will still have to be assessed and verified by the Guinness World Record Adjudicators. Should they find the Philippine entry true and correct, an official Guinness World Records Certificate, confirming the country’s feat in this world record attempt will be sent.