QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES – Culminating the 50^th Founding Anniversary and the 2023 Professional Regulation Week and as part of protecting the environment through planting trees, the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) in cooperation with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Climate Change Commission (CCC), National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), Society of Filipino Foresters, Inc. (SFFI), Million Trees Foundation, Inc. (MFTI), and Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerages System (MWSS) conducted a Tree Planting Activity last June 25, 2023, at the La Mesa Watershed. This was also in celebration of the Philippine Arbor Day and a simultaneous Nationwide Tree Planting across all regions.  To formally seal this annual activity and ensure sustainability, a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) had been signed to signify every agency’s aim to be the stewards of a sustainable environment.  Leading PRC for the MOA Signing were: Honorable Chairperson Charito A. Zamora with Hon. Commissioners Jose Y. Cueto, Jr. and Erwin M. Enad and PRC-NCR Director Lord Louis P. Valera.  They were joined by the heads and representatives from DENR, CCC, NCIP, SFFI, MTFI, and MWSS. Since this was on a hybrid setup, audiences from regional offices and other government agencies were welcomed virtually. 

Many of the volunteers and participants were inspired by Wangari Maathai’s powerful line: “Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water it, and make it survive, you haven’t done a thing. You are just talking.” As recognized, sustainability is always the key to the success of any endeavor, and with this, PRC remained to its commitment as a protector and also a guardian of mother Earth. 

As quoted by Hon. Chairperson Zamora, the tree planting activity served as a reminder that everyone’s responsibility for the environment does not stop after the day’s end but is a lifelong commitment for the present and future generations.