Mimaropa cops ordered to plant 1M trees before end of 2022

The Mimaropa Regional Police is planning to plant at least one million trees before the end of this year in a move to support the government’s reforestation efforts.

Mimaropa covers the provinces of Occidental and Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan.

Police Brig. Gen. Sidney Sultan Hernia, director of the Police Regional Office 4B, said they already planted more than 400,000 seedlings in the last seven months and the focus is to plant more than 570,000 more in the next few months of the year.

He said the task was given to all police units in the region that include police stations and the Regional Mobile Force Battalion, and the Regional Headquarters.

“They are all tasked to plant a total of 572,976 seedlings by December 2022, or 95,496 seedlings per month within a period of 5 months,” said Hernia.

Based on its records, PRO4B already planted 427,024 seedlings of fruit and non-fruit-bearing trees in active partnership with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and various stakeholders in the entire region.

Hernia said the tree-planting project will be complemented with the aggressive campaign against illegal loggers in the entire region.

Citing records from the Regional Operations Division, a total of 195 illegal loggers were arrested since January. The operations also resulted in the confiscation of 39,313.80 board feet of illegally-cut lumbers worth almost P1.5 million.