Baguio plants trees to celebrate Cordillera Day

SOME 250 school children and policemen on Monday planted pine and alnus seedlings at the Busol watershed as one of the activities to observe the 25th foundation anniversary of the Cordillera Administrative Region.

Police Inspector Virgilio Hidalgo, public information officer of the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO), said Presidential Proclamation No. 391 which declared Monday as official non-working holiday enabled the pupils to join the activity.

Cultural festivities were also held Sunday in the city where the indigenous people and migrants in the region expressed gratitude to then president Corazon C. Aquino who issued Executive Order No. 220 that created CAR and paved the way for faster and more development in the area.

"The tree planting by the children would inculcate in their young minds the value of community work, as well as thank the vision of their leaders like the late president Cory Aquino. This activity also marks that 22 years ago when Baguio was hit by a powerful earthquake which taught us to be prepared for any disaster," said Hidalgo.

A morning inter-faith prayers were also held at the Baguio Convention Center where various religious organizations prayed for the repose of those who died in the earthquake, gave assuage to the bereaved families of the more than 500 dead, and extolled the virtues and heroism of the rescuers, most of them local miners and cadets of the Philippine Military Academy.

Baguio city administrator Carlos Canilao said that the July 16, 1990 earthquake taught the people here to be more conscious on disaster preparedness as well as the care and protection of the environment. (Aure Galacgac/PNA)