LAWMAKERS have vowed to refile in the coming 17th Congress a measure that would enhance and protect the country’s forest cover.
“We are all witnesses to nature’s fury. Global warming and climate change are now a real threat to humanity. We must do our part and act now to counter the problem of biodiversity loss for the sake of the future generations,” Magdalo party-list Reps. Gary Alejano and Francisco Ashley Acedillo said in a statement.
The two lawmaker were referring to several pending measures in Congress that seek to promote environment protection.
Two of them are House Bills 3556, authored by outgoing Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, and HB 972” by Acedillo and Alejano.
The measures are under consideration by the House committee on reforestation which, if not passed due to time constraint during the 16th Congress, are sure to be reintroduced in the early days of the next Congress.
“While we recognize the right of the youth to a balanced and healthful ecology, as proclaimed in the 1987 Constitution, there is no reason why they cannot be made to contribute in order to ensure that this would be an actual reality,” Alejano said.
Alejano noted that HB 972 also complements Executive Order No. 26, issued by President Benigno Aquino III in 2011, which aims to mobilize students and government employees to plant 1.5 billion trees over a period of six years from 2011 to 2016.
With over 12-million students graduating from elementary and nearly 5-million from high school, and almost 500,000 graduating from college each year, this initiative, if properly implemented, will ensure that at least 175 million new trees would be planted each year, the Magdalo lawmakers pointed out.
“Even with a survival rate of only ten (10 percent) percent, this would translate to an additional 525 million trees would be available for the youth to enjoy, when they assume the mantle of leadership in the future,” Acedillo and Alejano stressed.
Rodriguez, for his part, explained that, at present, more trees are being felled due to shifting agricultural practices, urban and industrial development, illegal lumber trade and large-scale mining, among others.
“Global warming and climate change are environmental phenomena intertwined with the world’s decreasing biodiversity,” Rodriguez said.
“The loss of biodiversity is making climate change more complicated which poses threat on the planet’s marine and plant life,” he added.