INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
SAN FRANCISCO, Agusan del Sur, Philippines — The endangered Mt. Magdiwata watershed here gets a reprieve with the planting of some 1,000 rubber tree seedlings on its buffer zone by about 200 officials and workers of Agusan del Sur Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Aselco) on Saturday morning.
Engineer Emmanuel Galarse, Aselco general manager, said the tree planting activity that would help preserve the 1,652-hectare watershed, served as a significant tribute to the cooperative’s upcoming 37th anniversary on August 26.
He said they decided to plant rubber near the premises of Aselco main office in San Isidro village, just about 300 meters from the national highway, since such tree species could hold the sloping ground better to help prevent landslide, and that the cooperative could also profit from maturing trees ready for harvest.
Local authorities hope the tree planting activity would allay some fears from concerned residents on the effects of the pollution to be brought by the five-megawatt bunker-fired power plant inside the Aselco compound when it starts operating in the third quarter of this year.
Officials of the Peakpower San Francisco Inc., which will operate the power plant, have assured residents that the plant uses the latest technology that will arrest the emission of carbon pollutants from its funnel.
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