SENATOR Panfilo Lacson advised the local government unit of Baguio to give more importance to the caring of trees planted in the city.
During the 110th Baguio City charter anniversary at the Baguio Convention Center, Lacson reiterated the need to care for trees and to ensure these would fill the gap of greeneries as envisioned under the National Greening Program of the National Government.
“In our yearly budget, we annually allot P5 billion for the National Greening Program. For 2020, what they envision is to plant 100 million seedlings but the question here is where are the greens?,” Lacson said.
Lacson was earlier informed of the murder of some 45 Benguet Pine trees in a private lot in the city last July.
“The picture of the City of Pines becomes even bleaker with pine trees dying by the day, 45 of which were proven to be killed intentionally early this month. The mountains are balding, and no less than the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) blamed the construction boom and expanding urban sprawl as the reasons for the decline of the city’s pine trees,” Lacson added.
Lacson acknowledged like many developed cities, Baguio City has not been spared from new and challenging environmental concerns, such as the impact of increasing population, loss of green and open spaces, and waste management issues, to name a few.
“We have discussed this with Mayor (Benjamin) Magalong regarding and maybe what the city government should do is to not only focus on planting but on caring for trees to be planted because they may have planted trees but have not cared for it,” Lacson added.