July 18, 2007, 10 AM to 11AM, combatants from the 5^th Infantry (Swift Justice) Battalion of the 1^s Infantry Division,Philippine Army based here under the leadership of LTC Pablo Lorenzo, GSC and the Local Government of Aurora, Zamboanga del Sur together with the employees, DepED Students, NGOs and Pos joined hands to plant fruit bearing and non fruit bearing tress to kick-off the PGMAs Green Philippines or the Berdeng Pilipinas environmental protection program of the Arroyo government.

               “Yes we want to be known thru this quest of greatest number of trees planted within an hour in the world Book of Guinness, however this is only the secondary objective of why we joined the governments program in environment protection.

            “In this endeavor, we would like to tell our next generation that with greening our area of responsibilities, is not at all a contest but this is what want to share that thru this legacy, our future children will realize that environment protection isd the call of the day.” LTC Lorenzo said.

The 5^th Infantry Battalion who prepared 70,000 seedlings, shared some 12,000 seedlings of both non-fruit bearing and fruit bearing trees for the Aurora government to plant.

PGMA Green Philippines whose vision is to protect the country from forest degradation and other harm initiated the movement to become the country back to its original form as the greenest nation in Asia and the whole world.  It may be recalled that some years back, the Philippines is Asia wealth in natural resources, from trees to minerals, from fishes to other marine resources, fro rice to other food crops, but because of man’s destruction, we are now experiencing environmental problems.

            “We in the local government has been initiating environmental protection and preservation, but a sad note is that we can not sustain without the support of the local populace., what we need now is our peoples cooperation in the preservation and protection of our environment,” Mayor Enrique Cabahug said.

With the participation of the 5^th Infantry Battalion who surpasses their quota of trees, the 56,410 trees planted was achieved to the efforts of the units under the 5^th Infantry battalion. According to Major Samuel Lerias, Battalion Executive Officer thru his S7, Lt. Jose Niño Trespeces, the said number of trees came from Headquarters Battalion- 21, 033 trees planted, Alpha Coy- 3,921, Bravo Coy- 1,900, Charlie Coy- 17,000, Delta Coy – 5,660, Echo Coy – 3,356, Foxtrot Coy – 440, and Golf Coy- 3,100 were 13, 494 soldiers, wives and friends join in planting.

Last update : 30-12-2007 02:47

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