What ails the greening project?

There was a good activity conducted by almost the entire work force of the Cebu City government last Saturday. It was a massive tree planting, I just did not know why there appeared to be no effort to inform the public about it considering that when the administration of Mayor Edgardo Labella launched this greening program there was some unprecedented revelry. Anyway, Mr Joey Baclayon, the city agriculturist told me that his office and the City Environment Office planted about 13,000 Tugas, Narra and Guyabano tree seedlings. The areas chosen for the activity were Taptap, Tabunan and Budla-an.

 When Mayor Labella began this program in October last year, he, in the midst of media glare, did a President Rodrigo Duterte thing. No, the mayor did not talk of eradicating the ilegal drug trade in three months, he instead, promised us, his constituents, a more important project. That every year he would plant one million trees or a total of tree million in his term drew our loudest applause. Mayor Labella scored very high in our visionary record for no other local chief executive before him tried to address this worldwide climate change concern.

 Whatever was accomplished in the launching of the reforestation program did not match Mayor Labella’s incredible words. Remember that he announced to plant one million trees in the first year of his administration. The actual figures that came out of the much publicized tree planting work were drastically disheartening. I would like to believe though that the mayor was NOT at fault. He was probably just fed with wrong projections by his publicity conscious sub-alterns. I learned that despite revving the entire human resources of the city and all eighty barangays, only 50,000 trees were planted and that was already in the fourth month of his term. Even then, I remained hopeful that in the remaining eight months, he would be able to make up the huge discrepancy. With that frame of positive mind, I tried to get updates when I heard about the activity last Saturday.

 According to the city agriculturist, the tree planting last Saturday was not just the second outing. The city undertook similar efforts earlier. Sir Joey Baclayon, in fact, mentioned that so far, 100,000 trees already had been planted, including those accomplished in the program launching last October. From my calculations, the mayor’s target of million trees in the first year will not be met because it is almost statistically impossible to plant 900,000 trees more in the next three months ending June 2020.

In an exchange of text messages with Baclayon, I seemed to understand a part of the apparent failure of the mayor. The pronouncement of the mayor was not supported with action in terms of funding allocation. Labella was probably not informed by his lieutenants that the reforestation program he so dramatically announced cannot be done without needed funds.

  I really do not to believe though that the mayor missed this elementary matter. I am sure he knows this financial component of the project. For example, in the October planting alone, there were funds paid to individuals who dug holes to make the planting easier and faster. The city paid a rather extravagantly huge amount of twenty pesos P20.00 per hole dug. Whew! Some persons earned bonanza from it. So, assuming that of the 50,000 trees that were planted then, 10,000 holes were dug by contracted workers, the city paid a whooping P200,000.  That was for digging holes alone. But, there is bigger cost than that. Acquiring seedlings is more onerous. Here is where the tree planting project is reportedly deficient. The text message of Baclayon is unmistakable. He said: “Kini tanan natong mga  seedlings Atty pulos jud ni pinangayo nato since wala pa tay budget for supplies.” Well, we cannot argue against the fact that If we talk of tree planting, we need, in the very first place, seedlings. To gather seedlings in the volume required to meet the program needs money more than oratory.

The good thing going for our mayor is that he has also resourceful personnel. Baclayon is one. Discern his character from his text: “As much as possible, ato nalang initiative tanan so that we can produce the seedlings and supplies like plastic bags and soil media. Tinood gamay pa kaayo ato natanum but seguro sa tabang sa barangay ug mga tawo sa bukid makab ot ra nato.”

  I am positive that Mayor Labella will see to it that Baclayon and others who are tasked to do the seemingly impossible goal of planting 3,000,000 trees in three years have all needed support.