Employees and officials of Manila Standard planted about 400 propagules of bamboo as they joined environment and government executives and a motorcycle riders’ group in the 11th sowing of the MS “Integritree” Adopt a Tree program on Saturday along the banks of Kaliwa River in Rizal province.
The activity was held in celebration of World Bamboo Day today (Sept. 18) and dovetailed with environmental efforts marking International Coastal Cleanup Day on Saturday.
About 30 employees of the Standard and Kagitingan Printing Press Inc. (KPPI) joined officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Tingog Party-list, 50 members of the United Charity Riders of the Philippines, and local barangay officials in sowing the propagules at Brgy. Sto. Niño in Tanay, Rizal, which is a DENR protected area.
KPPI president Chito Constantino led a short program of speakers that also included Standard circulation head Edgar Valmorida, United Charity Riders president Cesar Vergara, National Grid Corporation of the Philippines coordinator Nestor Ariola, Protected Area Superintendent Filomino Antonio, and Roy Gulane, DENR SCIS Representative.
Elsewhere, hundreds of volunteers joined a mass cleanup drive along the coast of the polluted Manila Bay to mark International Coastal Cleanup Day on Saturday.
Volunteers and government workers, including hundreds of Coast Guard personnel, collected sachets, rubber slippers, and other non-biodegradable waste that have been washed in the Manila Bay, a 60-km semi-enclosed estuary facing the West Philippine Sea.
Waters along the Manila Bay, famous for its idyllic sunsets, are heavily polluted by oil, grease, and trash from nearby residential
areas and ports.
The Philippines is rich in marine resources, with nearly 36,300 km of coastline in the archipelago of more than 7,600 islands.
But it is the world’s top polluter when it comes to releasing plastic waste into the ocean, accounting for roughly a third of the total, according to an April 2022 report by the University of Oxford’s Our World in Data, a scientific online publication.
The International Coastal Cleanup Day is held every third Saturday of September to raise awareness of the growing garbage problems affecting
coastlines around the world.