Rhelyn Harder
- A bill requires students to plants trees as a prerequisite for graduation
- Students are said to plant trees in many areas in their locations
- Netizens also showed their support on social media for its implementation
Trees are important to the environment, especially in our current situation where we experience the effect of global warming. Our country’s industrial and infrastructure developments are continuously improving, and some of our trees had been cut down to build some buildings.
Recently, the House of Representatives has approved, on its third and final reading, a bill requiring students to plants trees as a prerequisite for graduation.
This House Bill is called “Graduation Legacy for the Environment Act.” House Bill 8728 aims to require all graduating students from elementary to college to plant at least 10 trees as a prerequisite for graduation.
Students are said to plant trees in any of the following areas: forest land, mangrove, and protected areas, ancestral domains, civil and military reservations, urban areas under the greening plan of the local government units, inactive and abandoned mine sites, and other suitable lands.
Students should also consider the location, climate, and topography of the area, with a preference for the planting of indigenous species of trees in choosing the appropriate plant to be planted.
The bill is authored by Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano, along with Deputy Minority Leader Joseph Stephen Paduano, Reps. Strike Revilla (2nd District, Cavite), Noel Villanueva (3rd District, Tarlac), Mark Go (Lone District, Baguio City), and Pablo Ortega (1st District, La Union), among others.
Netizens also showed their support on social media for its implementation.
https://twitter.com/AJumienardo/status/1128634636827947008
https://twitter.com/JuanMaroon/status/1128844324664307712
Others may find it ridiculous and corny pero ang ganda kaya nung graduation requirement na each students should plant 10 trees, sana lang cOnSitEnt ang DENR.
— nen (@ShannenReishi) May 17, 2019
Very much agree on the tree planting bill that is being processed right now. But it should be given to freshmen college students in their nstp and be checked before graduation whether it lived throughout the years. For it is not enough to plant trees and neglect it afterwards.
— WorbiFullyLoaded (@wwwurbrt) May 16, 2019
Yaan ganyan. Makabuluhang batas. Kung ganyan kasingkabuluhan ang 90 porsyento ng mga batas na ipapasa ng kongreso, me pag-asa pa ang bansa.
— The Dook of Phoenix (@dookie_phoenix) May 15, 2019
https://twitter.com/4LifeTFCebu/status/1128814307356106757
https://twitter.com/_shanetamil/status/1128845723846434816
House Bill 8728 also mandates the different government agencies to take part, which includes the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education to implement the Act, in partnership with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Agriculture, Department of Agrarian Reform, Department of Budget and Management, Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Health, Department of Transportation and Communications, Department of National Defense, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Justice, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation.
Before it will be submitted to the President to be signed into law, the Senate must pass its own version of the bill before chambers meet in a bicameral conference committee to ratify the legislation.
