Retired police general Reynaldo Velasco on Thursday stepped down as chairman and administrator of the Metropolitan Waterworks Sewerage System (MWSS) to run for Congress in the May 2022 national elections.
Velasco announced his decision during the groundbreaking ceremony for the Million Trees Foundation, Inc. (MTFI) plant and saplings nursery at the La Mesa Watershed area.
He said he would run as a party-list representative of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Retirees Association, Inc. (PRAI), an organization working for the benefit and welfare of all retired men and women in the uniformed service of the PNP and their dependents.
“I am proud to be part of this significant step towards environmental sustainability,” Velasco said in a statement emailed to the Philippine News Agency (PNA).
The Annual Million Tree Challenge (AMTC) is a project of the MWSS aimed at rehabilitating seven critical watersheds – Angat, Ipo, Kaliwa, La Mesa, Laguna Lake, Umiray, and Upper Marikina, including Manila Bay – that are essential in the water supply chain in Metro Manila and neighboring provinces.
The AMTC is on track, achieving more than its target of four million trees in four years.
“We have to join hands to address the state of our watersheds as these greatly affect our water supply. I am grateful to the proponents of Million Trees Foundation, Inc. for joining together for a noble cause,” he said.
Velasco thanked MWSS concessionaires Manila Water, Maynilad, Luzon Clean Water Development Corp. (LCWDC), and other project partners for supporting the AMTC.
“(The) AMTC would not have been as successful without the support of the concessionaires and other civic organizations,” he said.
The establishment of a plant and tree nursery is an integral component of the MTFI programs.
Under a memorandum of agreement between the MWSS and the MTFI, the latter was granted a site for the nursery in the La Mesa Watershed area.
The MTFI is the non-government partner organization of MWSS in the implementation of the AMTC. It will ensure the sustainability of AMTC beyond the project’s five-year duration and was granted administrative and operational authority to develop the project further.
The nursery will serve as a support and production arm of the AMTC where seeds of plants and tree species to be transplanted by institutional partners in identified watershed beneficiaries will be germinated.
About 500,000 saplings of narra (Pterocarpus indicus), ylang ylang (Cananga odorata), and bamboo, among others, will initially be produced.
MTFI president and executive director Melandrew T. Velasco said the nursery is very important in helping the watersheds and planting trees in terms of rehabilitating the seven critical watersheds areas.
“Tree-planting within the watersheds is critical because if there are no trees in the mountains, our water treatment plants would have to deal with a high amount of turbidity when it rains. This will help us ensure potable water for everyone,” he said.
Velasco said the foundation wants to make the five-hectare area at the La Mesa Watershed the center of such activities as reforestation, training, and seminars.
“There is so much to be done, and we will not stop working. We are excited about the next five or 10 years as we will see how this nursery becomes the center of activity for AMTC,” he added.
Source: Philippines News Agency