URDANETA CITY – Aside from planting trees along the national highway in line with the Green Philippine Highway Program, residents here expanded their planting through a city-wide tree planting program last Friday and all-year round.

Mayor Amadeo Perez Jr. led the tree planting program that initially covered more than eight-kilometer stretch of the Maharlika highway from the city boundary with Binalonan and with Villasis, participated by thousands of members of civic and professional organizations and pupils, students and civil servants.

The Urdaneta section of the national highway is part of the Manila North road that starts in Laoag City up to Bulacan which is also linedup with thousands of tree planters who turned out for last Friday’s Green Philippine Highway Program.

Perez hailed the greening program initiated by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources because of the massive support it generated from all sectors caring for their environment.

He told Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes when he was here last month that the people of Urdaneta will not only plant at their national highway but also in their
barangay and city roads, school campus and vacant lots.

After planting along the national highway, the mayor and the other officials inspected the tree planting done simultaneously in all barangays.

Perez estimated more than 10,000 seedlings planted in the citywide tree planting program alone, coordinated by barangay captains whom he tasked months earlier to produce their own seedlings to be planted by their constituents.

Also planted with about a thousand seedlings was the sanitary landfill in sitio Caligu, barangay Catablan where the city’s Materials Recovery facility is also located.