INQUIRER.net: Requiring candidates to plant trees would be fun
First posted 03:52:15 (Mla time) 2007-01-13
Inquirer
http://www.inquirer.net/specialfeatures/theenvironmentreport/view.php?db=1&story_id=43173
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/letterstotheeditor/view_article.php?article_id=43173
IN 2004, all candidates were required to undergo a drug test before the Commission on Elections would approve their petition to run in the elections. I think not one candidate was found guilty of using illegal drugs. (They were not drug dependents, just drug lords).
For the 2007 elections, why not require candidates — from senatorial “wannabes” down to would-be local chieftains — to plant a tree in their respective “barangay” [villages or neighborhood districts]. Before approving a petition for candidacy, the Comelec should require a candidate to submit a certificate, signed by a barangay chairman, that he/she has planted a tree this year. Imagine the thousands of trees which will be planted in 79 provinces, 115 cities and 1,500 municipalities. This undertaking will complement the Green Philippines Highways project of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Luntiang Pilipinas [Green Philippines] of former Sen. Loren Legarda and the one-billion-trees program of Speaker Jose De Venecia.
Planting a tree is the least a candidate can do for the environment. Candidates will consume tons of paper for their election paraphernalia. They will dot the entire length and breadth of the Philippine archipelago with huge streamers containing their ugly, albeit smiling, faces. Many of these campaign ads will be posted on trees.
This project will also be an opportunity to ridicule politicians who are known coddlers, if not operators, of illegal logging, large-scale mining and timber smuggling. Imagine how embarrassing tree-planting could be for a candidate whose business directly leads to the destruction of our environment.
Hopefully, this will partially instill a pro-environment consciousness among public officials. Environmental protection could be added in their election agenda. After winning or losing in the elections, candidates may continue with this “green” crusade. Perhaps, nature will guide the superstitious on whom to vote for in the next elections. Good leaders breed tall and strong trees, while bad politicians leave behind only tree stumps.
To plant a tree is not a difficult requirement. In fact, it was a requirement in a government program in 2004. Scholars of the Student Assistance Fund for Education and Strong Republic (SAFE for SR) were required to plant trees before they were given their subsidy. We should be more firm in compelling politicians to plant trees. They always profess their concern for our children and love of country. Well, one way to prove this is to plant trees.
Trees breathe life into the surroundings and are a beauty to behold. For candidates, what is one intimate hour of communing with nature to three months of dirty election campaigning and three years of disappointing public governance that, most likely, will just result in the destruction of trees?
RAYMOND PALATINO, president, Kabataan Party (via e-mail)
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