Massive Ipo Watershed Reforestation Slated Next Year

Wazzup Pilipinas!


DENR, GCash, WWF and BIOFIN to plant 365,000 native trees in 2021

Ipo Watershed, which supplies fresh water to 20 million people living or working in Metro Manila, will be bolstered with hundreds of thousands of new trees next year.

Through donations generated from GCash, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the United Nations Development Programme’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) will plant the first of 365,000 native trees like Narra, Lauaan, Kupang and Yakal as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted in 2021.

“We originally wanted to plant in mid-2020, but decided to heed lockdown guidelines to ensure public safety,” explains Mabel Niala, Mynt Public Affairs and CSR Head of GCash. GCash is the Philippines’ top cashless service and serves a fifth of its population, plus 75,000 partner merchants and 75 nonprofits.

Using their mobile phones, users can plant trees through GCash Forest. Users earn Green Energy Points by reducing their individual carbon footprints. Paying bills online for instance, eliminates the need to drive to a bank and consume paper for receipts and forms. More points can be garnered for walking to work, taking the stairs and avoiding single-use plastic items.

When users reach 20,560 points, his or her virtual tree will be fully-grown and a corresponding native tree shall be planted in Ipo Watershed.

Cover photo:

Rainforestation is the process of restoring ailing forests with native rainforest species instead of commercial or fruit-bearing trees. Ipo Watershed’s plant nursery brims with native species like Yakal, Kupang, Narra, Lauaan and Dau. DENR, GCash, BIOFIN and WWF aim to plant 365,000 new trees as soon as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted in 2021.

Watersheds host resident and migratory populations of waterbirds, such as this pair of rare Philippine Ducks (Anas luzonica).

Trees for Water

Trees provide innumerable services for people and nature. They provide oxygen, shade, habitats, erosion-control, food, medicine and other benefits.

Sadly, they are being cut down at astronomical rates. The Philippines is losing at least 52,000 trees daily. Logging, slash-and-burn-farming and land development are annually erasing 47,000 hectares of forestland – an area thrice the size of Quezon City. Just 7.168 million hectares of forestland remains in the Philippines.

Watersheds are zones which naturally collect and store water. They are typically heavily-vegetated because trees absorb rainwater which drains into streams, rivers and lakes.

Ipo Watershed, together with the Angat and Umiray watersheds, supplies 98% of Metro Manila’s water needs. Situated northeast of the sprawling Metropolis, it covers 7236 hectares in Norzagaray and San Jose Del Monte in Bulacan, plus Rodriguez in Rizal. It is home to several species of charismatic animals, including the Philippine Brown Deer, Philippine Warty Pig, Tarictic Hornbill, Grey-headed Fish Eagle and Osprey.

Though protected by several proclamations including a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title for the Indigenous Dumagat tribes of the watershed, Ipo Watershed is pockmarked by patches of burnt soil. From 85%, forest cover plummeted to 40% in recent years, mostly due to slash-and-burn or kaingin farming and charcoal-making.

It is estimated that for 2021, Metro Manila’s water demands will overtake supply by as much as 13% during peak days, meaning more dry faucets and unserved households – but taking care of watersheds can avert this.

“GCash Forest has proven that mobile technology can generate real change for our forests,” says Niala. “Everyone can now get a chance to plant a tree through the click of a button. If you haven’t tried GCash Forest yet, please download the app and help restore our forests today.”

Water scarcity is a daily reality of millions of people. Planting trees and protecting groundwater sources is a form of insurance to keep our taps flowing.

Ipo Watershed, together with the Angat and Umiray Watersheds, supplies 98% of the water requirements of Metro Manila, one of the world’s most densely-populated cities with a daytime population of 20 million people. In March 2019, 10,000 households lost access to fresh water owing to reduced water levels in nearby La Mesa Dam. Conversely, the lack of trees around Metro Manila contributed to massive and highly-destructive floods in late 2020.

Raising Wussies with House Bill No.1526, An Act Banning Minors from Full-Contact Competitive Sports

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Ako Bicol Reps. Alfredo Garbin Jr. and Elizaldy Co have filed House Bill No. 1526, titled An Act Banning Minors from Full-Contact Competitive Sports which seeks to "prohibit the participation of minors in competitive full-contact sports such as boxing, mixed martial arts, jiu jitsu, muay thai, judo, taekwondo and various forms of full-contact karate."

To congress: please pass a bill banning us, from having full contact with the author of this bill and for them to be declared persona non utak or persona utak biya!

Pucha!!! Sports in any form helps strengthen kids/adults immune system!!! Gaguhan ba tong bill na to?

Just look at Japan and Korea where early sports and arts are inculcated in children.

“Karate Adult” doesn’t sound as catchy as “Karate Kid”...

The Pussy-fication of the next generation has officially begun.

We are going to raise a generation of pussies if this bill materialize. Pain is a great teacher.

If they really want to keep kids safer, they should ban things like super sugary candy or drinks like softdrink that are making our kids obese and unhealthy. 

Better to ban online gaming especially with going Live and kids cussing here and there. The nonsense noise is too annoying.

Martial arts is cool and it instills a different type of discipline to kids. They learn to focus and apply strategic self-defense to protect themselves and keep loved ones safe too.

Physically, just like any other sports, improves your outlook on keeping fit and healthy, thus giving special attention to what kids eat and work on to maintain fitness and health.

This is another bill that will make weaklings of our children. Stop protecting them in the most inane of ways. Do you really want a generation of sissies and ninnies?

Do they want our future generations to be wimps and become snowflakes? Martial arts help can help kids grow both physically and mentally! The discipline combined with the knowledge of defense and attack can save lives.

Next maybe padded basketball courts and full body armour for players. 

This reminds me of a Christian group that believes martial arts is satanic  and the belts they use holds the evil sprite.

I’m guessing the next bill is to not hurt any criminals when they are apprehended and use little to no force at all. 

If this is a response to that Ateneo kid who went viral in 2018 when he bullied other kids by using his Taekwondo, then you're so late.

Although it is not appropriate during this pandemic, sports should be encouraged - not limited, especially for kids who need the discipline. After this Pandemic is over, we should encourage our children to be active in such.

Who authored this trash of a bill? Which wont pass...im sure There are provisions in the constitution that violates the rights of children to play.

HB1526 authored by Congressmen Alfredo Garbin Jr. and Elizaldy Co of Ako Bicol Partylist.

These congressmen are apparently not Cobra Kai material.

Lately bills being proposed are becoming stupid to stupidier if there is such. Like, is that the best thing you could think of? Shame on the proponents of that bill and the likes.

"This is stupid. If this bill is passed, it will have been done by people who don't understand anything about anything.

You rarely ever see kids get severely hurt in contact sports. What martial arts instills in essentially every minor who falls in love with these disciplines is honor, humility, respect for foes, and a powerful camaraderie between teammates. EVERYONE KNOWS THIS.

Yes, some kids turn into arrogant little assholes, but those are extremely rare cases. An overwhelming majority of teens and preteens who walk into a jiu-jitsu class or a muay thai gym or a wrestling mat with even just the sliightest semblance of an ego walk out humbled -- yet stronger and more confident to face a world teeming with bullies and snakes.

Oh, and if this is about Covid, kindly check the latest from the CDC and the WHO and find out for yourself how the data explicitly shows that the Corona rate for kids is so trivially, preposterously low that's it's basically negligible at this point. Apart from newborns, there is literally no age demographic safer from Covid than minors.

So please stop passing dumb bills. The point of your job is to make the world a better place, not to turn the next generation into a pitiful assortment of weak, oversensitive telenovela drama queens who will never get the opportunity to learn the powerful, breathtaking beauty of what it's like to struggle, feel pain, and come out on the other side a better human being.

Our lawmakers are getting bankrupt of ideas that's why stupid bills such as this are being filed. There is one bill filed by Senator Gordon which became a law. It's about the plate number of motorcycles. 

Having lawmakers like these is one of the best arguments why we should just go for a unicameral form of legislature. With that, we can save a lot of government funds and we can have lesser useless lawmakers filing useless and absurd bills." - Franco Mabanta

Duterte to fireworks makers: Look for other livelihood

Wazzup Pilipinas!

"President Rodrigo Duterte said he will give firecracker manufacturers a year to find new sources of income as he is considering declaring a total ban on the use of fireworks – the same policy being implemented in Davao City – beginning December 2021."

"Palace tells firework makers to look for other livelihoods".

Sana man lang "Palace assured firework makers that they will be provided with other livelihoods" 

What a dork! That is the government's RESPONSIBILITY. That is what the government should focus on. Jobs or Livelihoods for the Filipinos. And in turn they have to pay taxes. If he could provide work for the Chinese that they let in the country, they should also be able to do the same for the Pinoys.

Kaso ang galing-galing talaga ni Tatay. Always trabaho ng hindi nag-iisip ang peg. Akala yata niya great idea Yun since dangerous naman talaga ang firecrackers, but he is forgetting this damn Coronavirus! Again, wrong timing. Kahit 2021 pa Yan, we don't really know when this pandemic will lasts.

What will the manufacturers and their employees do? Line up in the streets and beg? Looks like another spur of the moment utterances and no alternative plan to help the displaced owners and workers. Kadiri talaga itong administration na ito. Puro pahirap lang ang naiisip. Laging kulang-kulang at short-sighted ang action plans? Walang vision for the future. Or no plan at all talaga since Day 1?

The government should help them find a new source of livelihood! How stupid can you get! Remember that there's still.the pandemic. I think it will be difficult to just switch business for the owners, or work for the laborers.

At this point,,we should focus more on providing jobs and livelihood instead of taking those away. Although the president is raising a few valid points, this is not the right time to slap this one on the affected populace.

Better if the government gives them alternative livelihood as part of their anti poverty programs. Let the concerned agencies do their jobs. Sayang ang pinapasahod sa kanila.

Duterte still thinks the whole country can be handled like Davao. This man never learned his lesson. After three to dix months he promised to get rid of crime, which includes drugs, but now where are we with this drugs problem?

Like banning it is gonna help? People will find other ways to outsource firecrackers. Can he please stop treating The Philippines like Davao? 

Instead of providing jobs to those who are affected by the pandemic, it seems this administration is enjoying closing businesses, and taking away the jobs of the people. For every action, they should give a solution....in this case, sources of livelihood. 

In the world fireworks displays are all over, and being done in many occasions in situations needed by a country, to entertain and for merry making activities.

To stop people engaged in business, and the government does not present any alternative for their livelihood is a deprivations of their right to a decent living. The government must give them jobs for assurance of a sustainable living. Give them a means for their financial stability.

The country would be safer without Duterte should be the one to leave the Presidency and go find another job. He doesn't even deserve going back to Davao as a Mayor.