DepEd Kalinga celebrates Cordillera Day instilling to the youth importance of planting trees

Tabuk city, Kalinga – One of the Department of Education (DepEd) Kalinga advocacy which they conduct every year is to celebrate Cordillera Day with planting trees to inspire others to care for their environment and create some changes although in a longer term.

Kalinga Province is one of those areas which suffers from natural disasters like landslides and flooding attributed to slash and burn agriculture and forest degradation.

Through DepED-Kalinga’s Youth Formation Unit of the School Governance and Operations Division, 200 young people conducted their tree planting at Rizal Central School-Cadao Site, Rizal, Kalinga during the 34th founding anniversary of the region on Thursday, July 15, 2021.

The seedlings were provided by the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO) - Kalinga and the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO).

The activity was also attended by various organizations including the PNP headed by Sir Ruff Manganip, the 503rd Brigade of the Philippine Army, the Cordilleran Youth Brigade led by the Mobile Force Company, the LGU of Rizal, the Igorot Warriors International (NGO), the PTA of Rizal, the School Heads and the parents as well as other government offices.

Merlyne Gumatay designated Division Information Officer of DepEd Kalinga mentioned that resiliency is one of the reasons why they conducted such activity. “It is related to Disaster Risk Reduction and Management. That's why whenever we conduct activities like this; we always work in tandem with the Division DRRM and the Social Mobilization and Networking Unit,” she added.

Last year, DepEd Kalinga led the planting of about 300 seedlings around the school lot of Santor National High School in Rizal.

The Advocacy of DepEd

The activity was done to reiterate the advocacy of DepEd programs and tree planting activities every Cordillera day under a Division Memorandum signed by Assistant Schools Division Superintendent Amador Garcia.

The department conducted tree planting on this day because they considered it significant for their fellow Cordillerans.

They wanted to teach the community and the schools the importance of planting trees for the future generation - for fruit bearing trees to feed the kids, other trees to give shade or provide wood for other uses apart from helping against soil erosion.

“It may be difficult to restore the original nature which has already been destroyed by humans but somehow we can do little things, even simple things like this tree planting to make the possibility of having a greener environment in the next years to come,” Gumatay said.

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