Tuesday, October 17, 2006 Mandaue officials, CH workers to plant trees along major roads
AFTER donating almost 3,700 flowering and decorative plants of different varieties, City Hall officials and employees, led by Mayor Thadeo Ouano, will be planting these along major roads in Mandaue City starting today.
Ouano told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday that they will do the planting during office hours every day along the route of the Asean summit.
A skeletal workforce will be assigned at City Hall to attend to regular transactions, while the rest of the employees are busy planting.
Ouano has yet to issue an official memorandum for this, though.
He said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in December is for everyone’s benefit, not just for the government.
He is asking the employees to help in the city’s beautification efforts so they will feel that they are part of the preparations.
Besides, City Hall needs more manpower to immediately accomplish the beautification project.
Ouano’s wife Linda, who heads the city’s beautification efforts for the summit, said the donated plants were a big help to them because it lessened their beautification and landscaping expenses.
Linda said they collected mostly yellow bells, yellow vines, San Francisco and bougainvillas because these are the type of plants that the City’s landscaper asked for.
But the City also accepted other types of flowering and decorative plants that the employees and students gave.
Mandaue’s sub-committee on beautification gathered 1,800 plants from the various offices in City Hall, as well as from National Government offices in the city. Students and teachers from the city’s public elementary and high schools also gave 1,858 plants.
Ouano recently released an executive order establishing the Landscapes Management Office (LMO) to ensure the sustained greening, landscaping and beautification of the city and the regular maintenance of its parks, plazas and open spaces.
LMO is tasked, among others, to identify areas for greening, beautification and landscaping, formulate its program and maintain a seedling bank or nursery to support the planting material needs of the program.
All clean and green employees of City Hall are placed under the supervision of the LMO, which is also under the Office of the City Mayor.
LMO is given an initial funding allocation of P10 million. (ROV)
