Employees of Taiheiyo Cement and Solid Earth plant trees in San Fernando town. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)
EMPLOYEES of Taiheiyo Cement Philippines Inc. and Solid Earth Development Corp. and some community volunteers planted a total of 5,350 seedlings at the different sites in San Fernando town in support of the National Greening Program (NGP) of Mines and Geosciences Bureau since last June.
The employees of Solid Earth first planted at least 5,000 Mahogany seedlings last June 25 in Sitio Dubdub, Barangay Magsico. The fieldmen of Solid Earth subcontractors F.A. Manpower Corp. and Triple 8 Resources Development Corp. joined the activity.
A week later or on July 2, Taiheiyo Cement employees planted 350 seedlings of jackfruit and acacia aure on a vacant lot beside the junior staff house.
TCPI plant manager Kazuhiko Ichizawa, senior vice president for operations, and Kazuhiko Soma, operations division manager, led the 30 employees in the tree-planting activity that was conducted under the company’s Environment Protection and Enhancement Program (EPEP).
“All the more that we, at TCPI, contribute more to promote and keep our environment,” he said, pointing out that it has been the commitment of Taiheiyo group to uphold its corporate social responsibility.
Engr. Dwight Avila, safety section head of TCPI, said that planting trees can help suppress carbon dioxide emission and other greenhouse gases.
“We owe it to our future generation to lower man’s carbon footprint,” he stressed.
Engr. Romeo Gebilaguin, TCPI environment and safety division manager, emphasized that TCPI does not only focus on tree planting but tree growing as well.
“What is more important is to maintain and watch these seedlings grow,” he said.
He said that some 65,000 trees have already been planted since the joint Environment Protection and Enhancement Program of Taiheiyo and Solid Earth started 10 years ago.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Central Visayas acknowledged the two companies for their support to the NGP.
Upon its completion this year, the NGP is expected to improve the country’s air quality and reduce greenhouse gases by absorbing 38 million tons of carbon.