By Lolo Bobby Mercado-Reyes of Sorsogon City

The BLeSSED ReVOTElution Has a More-viable Proposal for Reforestation that its Proponents Sent in 2003 to then-President Gloria Arroyo

Part VII of the Series on “The ReVOTElution of Hope for Sorsogon”

O ur Chicago-based columnist Joseph G. Lariosa wrote about the latest plan of the Philippine government to undertake a massive reforestation project.

Mr. Lariosa, the dean of Filipino correspondents in the United States, wrote about it in this article, PHL to Plant 500-Million Trees in One-Million Hectares

The “Bicol, Leyte, Samar and Sorsogon Economic Development”  (BLeSSED) Program has been publicizing since May 2007 a 2003 proposal sent to then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The proposal called for a massive reforestation, starting in Sorsogon as its pilot province. Readers may read excerpts of the BLeSSED proposal in this article,

Funding Reforestation as a Solution to Global Warming (Part6)

The BLeSSED Program has now Dream-Team members from the Philippines, Australia, Canada, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States. Many of them do not come from the BLeSSED provinces but they are willing just the same to spearhead the projects – all for the greater glory of God and country.

T his writer has also mentioned the so-called “Tree-farming Cooperatives” (TFC) in these articles:

RP Should Focus on Renewable Energy Instead of Reviving Nuclear Plant – Nene Pimentel

How OFWs Can "Reinvent" Power Generation in RP and Simultaneously Fight Global Warming (Part 14)

How to Make a Biblical-based Real-estate Redevelopment the Answer to Global Warming, Starting in Sorsogon

Comparing the Latest PHL Government’s Reforestation Plan With the TFC Proposal

As written by Mr. Lariosa, the new reforestation plans as outlined by Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources Undersecretary Demetrio Ignacio, Jr., call for private investments.

·        On the hand, the BLeSSED ReVOTElution’s proposals outlined specific sources of funding.

The second major difference is that the reforestation plans, as presented by Undersecretary Ignacio, “will be made possible following the inclusion of tree planting as part of the school curriculum and a requirement for graduation.” The reality is that seedlings have to be nurtured until they are big enough – so that the growing trees can no longer be eaten by ruminants and can be sustained solely by natural rainfall. Students, especially those that are about to graduate from high school or college, cannot be depended upon to take care of the seedlings, so that they become saplings and eventually mature trees.

·        The BLeSSED proposal calls for families that belong to the TFC to be contracted as the caretakers and be paid at the rate of one-dollar (US$1.00) per tree per annum. A family of six can easily take care of 5,000 trees and it can earn at least $5,000 per year. The projected income can raise substantially a poor rural Filipino family's income that is currently estimated at approximately two-dollars per day (or roughly US$730 per year).

The third difference is that the reforestation plans, as presented by Undersecretary Ignacio, appear to stand on their own and are not part apparently of a grand design to protect the environment.

·        The BLeSSED ReVOTElution proposal for TFC-led reforestation is part of a plan to generate emergency employment, “reinvent” power generation and combat Global Warming (Climate Change).

Perhaps the Second Aquino Dispensation should just support the BLeSSED ReVOTElution’s TFC-led reforestation proposal and see how it develops in Sorsogon Province and then in the Bicol and Leyte-Samar regions.

For all her supposed wisdom and training as an economist, then-President Arroyo remained an indifferent “dwarf” and refused even to acknowledge the proposals sent to her by the BLeSSED ReVOTElution’s prime movers. # # #

Editor’s Note: To read the other articles of this series, please go to:

How the ReVOTElution Will “Reinvent” Education and Life in Sorsogon

A Sorsoganon OFW Appears to Be a Bigger Hero than Manny Pacquiao: How the ReVOTElution Will Protect OFWs and their History (Part II)

A Bigger Danger than an Eruption Lurks in Bulusan Volcano

 (Part III)

How to Make a Biblical-based Real-estate Redevelopment the Answer to Global Warming, Starting in Sorsogon (Part IV)

How Sorsogon Can Be the Botanical (and Natural-product Medicine) Capital of the Philippines, If Not of Southeast Asia (Part V)

Sorsogon Is Lolo Bobby’s and his Friends’ “Five O’Clock’s Somewhere” (Part VI)