Position Paper

House Bill 8728 or The Graduation Legacy for the Environment Act
What is happening now? Lot has changed. Rainforests were burned, many trees were cut,
and our climate is getting hotter than before. Is this the cause of nature or ourselves? Earth is the
only planet where humans can live on for it able to support life. It is the home to million species
of plants and animals. And trees are one of the contributor that give life on this planet for it produce
oxygen and provides food.
The Philippines climate is getting hotter and hotter and millions of trees are illegally cut.
Jacinta Bowler (2019). Between 1990 and 2005 the country lost 32.3 percent of its forest cover.
And it makes a big issue for the country, but now the Philippines House of Representative has put
forward a new way of dealing with the problem. The PHR proposed a house bill called “Graduation
Legacy for the Environment Act or House Bill 8728” it was proposed by two representatives, Gary
Alejano and Strike Revilla. This bill aims to require all graduating elementary, high school, and
college students to plant at least 10 trees each before they can graduate. It is the policy of the State
to pursue programs and projects that promote environmental protection, biodiversity, climate
change mitigation, poverty reduction, and food security.
Alejano said "This initiative, if properly implemented, will ensure that at least 175 million
new trees would be planted each year. In the course of one generation, no less than 525 billion can
be planted under this initiative". Trees must be planted in forest lands, mangrove and protected
areas, ancestral domains, civil and military reservations, urban areas under the greening plan of
the local government units, inactive and abandoned mine sites, and other suitable lands. CNN
Philippines (2019).
Under this bill, many agencies are mandated to help this proposed law, among them are
the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, Department of Environmental
and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Agriculture, Department of Agrarian Reform, and
the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples and other government agencies. The agencies
shall be responsible for nursery establishment, seedling production and site preparation,
monitoring and evaluation, and technical support and extension services. And they must also
provide security, transportation, fire protection amenities, and medical support. Congress.gov.ph.
In our country the number of trees is decreasing and we are experiencing lot of natural
disaster like typhoon, flooding, and air pollution. If the house bill 8728 be approve it will be greatly
helpful to us for trees have many beneficial factors. Trees offers us fresh air, food, medicine, and
shade when the climate is hot. It helps to prevent storm water and flooding issues. It encourages
biodiversity for many birds, animals, and insects call trees home. It can help the wildlife bring
back for we are losing species at an alarming rate. Aside of it provide shelter it also protects our
land and give more beauty to our nature.
Kids can have a natural playground for it provides a great place to climb and explore
without their parent worrying because the sun is high. It also helps them to be more active because
in our generation we are in a world where technology consume people’s attention.
Every one of us living in this country has the responsibility to take care the nature. It is not
only the government has responsible to take care of it. We are living here for years and we do
nothing. We keep complaining that the weather is hot and we are experiencing climate change, but
complaining is not the solution. As a citizen of this country we must do something to save our
mother earth and not only rely to our leaders for we can benefit here and our future generation.
Like Pope Francis said “We are stewards, not masters of our earth. Each of us has a personal
responsibility to care for the precious gift of God’s creation”.
We cannot restore nature if we are doing nothing and just waiting others to take action for
it, like Albert Einstein said “We cannot solve our problem with same thinking we used when we
created them.” So we must change our perspective, change begins with ourselves.
Prince Ea said “All of this happening right now the crisis is not global warming, natural
disaster, or animal agriculture, it is us, these problems are symptoms of us”. We are the reasons of
this happening so we are also the one to take the consequences of it. And we are the one who has
the responsibilities to take care of it.
This proposed bill will be our stepping stone to change ourselves and see the importance
of trees and our nature. Because in this generation we don’t care of what will be going to happened
tomorrow we can only see the importance of things if it’s already gone. The bill imposes us to start
for change before its too late. We are not apart from nature, we are part of nature. To save our
nature is to save us. Nature doesn’t need us but we humans need nature.
References:
House passes bill requiring graduation students to plant 10 trees on final reading. (2019)
Retrieved from https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2019/5/15/House-bill-plant-10-trees-graduation-
requirement.html?fbclid=IwAR2Qv57xsSFElmx1JlBU0E5Q_j0yrErhU1YkDBDTnhf13LvnCK
h4OmANE24
Bowler Jacinta. Philippines Passes Bill Requiring Students to Plant 10 Trees Before
Graduating. (2019).
Retrieved from https://www.sciencealert.com/philippines-passes-bill-requiring-graduating-
students-to-plant-10-trees-before-
graduating?fbclid=IwAR09W3GuVjuv9uhZxekDJ4_nDQGWZH3ZW7d4Trz3UAwIYcBZGnty
W0DecAY
House green-lights bill requiring all graduating students to plant 10 trees each. (2019)
Retrieved from
http://congress.gov.ph/press/details.php?key=students&pressid=11475&fbclid=IwAR02PUrB_1
3pNsyg8t0OH710FX_Tn85HnTErzOVl-Lt8BBCyk6mI-3fXCSo
Retrieved from https://trees.org/post/10-ways-trees-
help/?fbclid=IwAR09W3GuVjuv9uhZxekDJ4_nDQGWZH3ZW7d4Trz3UAwIYcBZGntyW0D
ecAY

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House Bill 8728 or The Graduation Legacy for the Environment Act

oxygen and provides food.

change mitigation, poverty reduction, and food security.

the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, Department of Environmental

land and give more beauty to our nature.

in our generation we are in a world where technology consume people’s attention.

responsibility to care for the precious gift of God’s creation”.

the responsibilities to take care of it.

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