TUGUEGARAO CITY- The Archdiocese of Tuguegarao has launched a campaign urging Catholics to help plant 1.25 million trees to help reduce floods in the Cagayan Valley region.
To do this, “Missio 500” encourages them to plant 500 trees each day, says the archdiocese which oversees diocesan and vicariate churches in the region.
The provinces of Cagayan and Isabela were inundated with rain and floodwater in November last year, following a series of typhoons. Various sectors blamed unregulated quarrying and deforestation for the calamity.
Missio 500 was launched on Thursday (Jan. 14) by Tuguegarao Archbishop Ricardo Baccay shortly before he was conferred with the sacred pallium to complete the process of his installation as bishop in January 2020.
The pallium is a woolen band that symbolizes unity with the Pope and the bishop’s responsibility to his flock. It was blessed by Pope Francis on the feasts of Saints Peter and Paul in Rome.
Missio 500 would involve local governments, civil society organizations, and non-government organizations, who pledged to help as the Catholics celebrate the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines this year.
The Dioceses of Ilagan (in Isabela province) and Bayombong (in Nueva Vizcaya), the vicariate of Tabuk (a city in the Cordillera’s Kalinga province), and the prelature of Batanes would spearhead Missio 500’s provincial operations.
Bayombong Bishop Elmer Mangalinao said there is an “urgency to protect our common home.”
Batanes Bishop Danilo Ulep pledged his commitment and vowed to “intensify and strengthen our advocacy to protect God’s creation and…(ensure) the sustainable development of our communities.”
The archdiocese also established the Metropolitan Ecology Desk and the Eco-convergence Luzon Hub, in partnership with Caritas Philippines, to promote Pope Francis’ Laudato Si, his encyclical (letter to the bishops) on ecology.