DENR-7 to Revive Marcos Law

● Former President Ferdinand Marcos required every student from elementary to college to plant at least ten trees before graduation.

The environment department in Central Visayas is contemplating to revive the policy that requires senior students to plant trees before graduation.

Technical Director Eduardo Inting of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-7 said they will try to coordinate first with the Department of Education (DepEd) on this aspect.

“All hills now maybe fully covered already with trees if the law requiring students to plant 10 trees during the Marcos regime still active today,” Inting said.

Inting said one of the martial law policies implemented by the late President Ferdinand Marcos was to require every student from elementary, high school, and college to plant at least ten trees before their graduation.

This Marcos policy eventually died a natural death, Inting said.

“It was ultimately unattended after the 1986 revolution which toppled the Marcos administration and the new administration of the late President Corazon Aquino was installed,” he said.

Inting said they will try to revive it by making a coordination with DepEd to ensure its effective implementation.

It can be recalled that in 2012 Senator Antonio Trillanes IV has filed Senate Bill 3166 requiring all students from elementary up to college to plant at least ten trees before their graduation.

The said bill is still pending at the senate.

As far as Trillanes is concerned, there are at least 175 million trees that can be grown yearly within this process if the proposal could be properly implemented.

The probable number of tress that can be planted every year was based on the yearly number of graduates: 12 million in elementary, 5 million in high school, and 500,000 in college.

The said policy is also considering the inclusion of the barangay chief executives who will check and sign a form to certify that a student complies with the law.

This policy would serve as a requirement before a student could be allowed to graduate from a certain degree or course.