By Gideon C. Corgue
PAGADIAN CITY – Local government units (LGUs), academe, civic groups and people’s organizations have expressed support to the Sept. 26, 2014 “TreeVolution,” a Mindanao-wide tree planting activity spearheaded by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in partnership with the Mindanao Development Authority (MINDA).
Dubbed “TreeVolution: Greening MindaNow,” aims to plant 4.6 million trees throughout Mindanao at 8:30-9:30 a.m. on Sept. 26, 2014.
Community Environment and Natural Resources Officer Vitaliano Valdez of the second district of Zamboanga del Sur said in a media forum held by Philippine Information Agency (PIA9) over the weekend that he was very happy that various civic groups have already signified their support to the said activity.
With his recent visit to the municipalities of Bayog, Dumalinao, Kumalarang, Pitogo and Tigbao to solicit support from the local officials, people’s organization and academe, Valdez said all the stakeholders had expressed their 100 percent support to the undertaking.
“For the municipality of Bayog, I was expecting that only 250 planters would join the activity but when I talked with Mayor Leonardo Babasa Jr., he promised to send 2,000 participants,” he announced.
Valdez said the same response he got from Mayor Danilo Dalid of tigbao town when he personally visited him at his office.
“For Tigbao, the Mayor Danilo Dalid promised to send not only 250 but 1,000 participants who are mostly of students and government employees to join the activity,” Valdez reported.
Meanwhile, CENRO Serena Cabrera of 1st district of the Zamboanga del Sur said her office has enough seedlings for the activity.
“We have sufficient seedlings to be planted during the activity,” Cabrera assured.
“For the first district, the DENR has designated the following planting sites, anmely: Barangay Dulop in Dumingag town, Binayan and Cogonan in Labangan municipality, Upper Dimorok in Molave town and Sto. Nino in Sominot municipality.
Mr. Carlito Tuballa, regional technical director for Forest Management Services (FMS) said “the DENR is very excited to launch the activity owing to the positive response of the stakeholders during consultations/meetings with local chief executives and school administrators and people’s orgnizations.”
“The entire workforce of the agency has made enough preparation to break India’s record as having planted the most number of trees in multiple locations for an hour,” Tuballa concluded.
