Legarda Urges Youth to Have a Green Summer and Be Green Heroes

SENATOR LOREN LEGARDA CALLED ON YOUNG FILIPINOS TO BECOME HEROES OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND HAVE A PRODUCTIVE AND GREEN SUMMER BY GETTING INVOLVED IN VARIOUS ACTIVITIES THAT PROMOTE ENVIRONMENTAL PRESERVATION.
“Our youth leaders, especially the Sangguniang Kabataan, can organize programs such as tree-growing activities in parks and in other suitable places in the barangay, growing vegetable gardens, clean-up and recycling drives, and establishing green brigades in their communities. Teenagers can teach younger kids how to grow vegetables and trees in their backyards so that at an early age they are already aware of the importance of protecting the environment,” Legarda stressed
Legarda said that the country’s youth should make good use of their two-month summer vacation and stressed that they must understand that even at a young age they already have the responsibility to care for the environment.
“I urge our youth to make their vacation special and different by having a green summer and becoming green heroes or protectors of the environment.”
“Various environmental advocacy groups have been organizing fun runs aimed at promoting environmental preservation. Our young citizens actively participate in such activities as it is done for a cause and is also good for their health. But I would like to encourage them to take a step further by joining actual tree-growing activities and other similar events,” she said.
Legarda explained that the Sangguniang Kabataan in every barangay and all youth organizations in the country should come up with more environmental projects during the summer vacation when most of the youth have free time to participate in such programs.
She pointed out that the Luntiang Pilipinas, a movement she founded in 1998 to raise the level of awareness of the value of trees by the Filipino public, can help in providing seedlings for tree-growing activities.
“As heirs of our nation’s wealth and heritage, the youth has a primary interest in protecting and conserving the environment. We must empower them to become effective catalysts for change. We must encourage them to become the protectors of our environment so that the future generations of Filipino citizens will be able to live in a cleaner, greener, safer and healthier Philippines,” Legarda concluded.