There are now 25,000 community gardens in the country under the “Kalinisan Day” campaign of President Marcos, Malacañang said.

In a statement, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said that this was part of the accomplishments of the “Kalinisan Day” campaign launched on Jan. 6 through Memorandum Circular 41.

According to Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary Chito Valmocina, the program aims to enjoin barangays to have community gardens which will be planted with 18 vegetables while the barangays are expected to give away seedlings to their constituents.

Funding for the project will come from the respective barangay’s budget instead from the national government, Valmocina added.

He said the DILG sees the need to sustain the clean-up drive campaign to ensure the non-stop implementation of the “Kalinisan Day”.

“Dapat continuous iyong paglilinis na ginagawa ng mga barangay. Alam natin na iyong ginawang memorandum circular ng ating Pangulo ay para talagang tutukan at saka talagang i-maintain (The cleanup that we are doing in the barangays must be done continuously. We know that the President's memorandum circular aims to monitor and maintain it),” Valmocina said.

Valmocina further said the DILG led 42,000 barangays; 1,700 cities; and 82 provinces in carrying out the community cleanup drive that included community gardens and fisheries.

“Lahat po ng sektor ay talagang ini-encourage dito kasi ang unang makikinabang dito ay senior citizen, mga kabataan. Kasi ang daming malnourished sa atin, bihira na iyong kumakain ng gulay (All sectors are encouraged because the first ones to benefit from this are the senior citizens, youth. Because there are a lot of malnourished, those who are eating vegetables are rare)," the official said.

"So ito po ay talagang malawak at mahabang pagpapaliwanag kung paano natin ma-encourage iyong lahat ng sektor para talagang ipakita natin bakit sa ibang bansa nagawa nila lahat iyong pagtatanim ng mga fruit-bearing na iyan; iyong gulayan, talagang in-improve nila (So this will be a long and broad effort to encourage all sector to show that other countries have done the planting of fruit-bearing plants, vegetables, they have really improved it),” he added.

Marcos said during the launch of the campaign that barangays will be assessed for their implementation of the nationwide clean-up program every month, saying he will closely monitor the program.