Drug surrenderees to plant trees
AT LEAST 120 drug personalities from San Fernando town who earlier submitted themselves to the local police for profiling will help plant 7,000 seedlings on Sept. 9, as part of their reformation activities.
The surrenderees are among the 1,500 participants in the 6th Run 2 Plant, an environmental advocacy of Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) in partnership with the Cebu Provincial Government, local government units and private sectors.
They will run from Barangay Sangat to Barangay Greenhills, San Fernando, Cebu, while simultaneously planting trees in designated lots.
Holes
San Fernando Mayor Lakambini Reluya said she requested the help of the police to tap the surrenderees who would like to help dig holes to prepare for the event.
“We pulled out some of our employees from the run to give them (surrenderees) the chance, at least this is something good for them,” said Reluya.
Reluya said that other than just providing them with meals, the surrenderees will also be given a small amount as a token to thank them for their work.
“With the thousands of surrenderees, we need to be able to provide them with an alternative income, even for a short term they can already help.” said RAFI Executive Director Anthony Dignadice.
“This is not just rehabilitating our environment and health but also rehabilitating our drug users.” said Dignadice.
Monitor
The mayor also said that they will be closely monitoring the growth of the seedlings for the next three to five years and that they will be involving interested surrenderees in the activity.
The tree planting is part of the Aboitiz Group of Companies’ commitment to plant nine million trees by 2020.
This initiative under the A-Park Program, which was forged back in 2010, is in line with the United Nations Environment Program’s “Billion Tree Campaign.”
The group exceeded its three million trees by 2015 target after planting a total of 3.4 million trees by the end of 2014, a year ahead of schedule. (Angiela Mae H. Conte, USJ-R intern)