GOVERNMENT CENTER, Bataan — Miss Eco Teen International 2020 Ro-an Tamondong has vowed to support the “1Bataan- 1M trees challenge”, an environment program of Gov. Abet S Garcia to plant One million trees in the province.
During her courtesy call on the office of the governor Friday, Tamondong told Vics Gov. Cris Garcia and Raul Mamac, head of the DENR’s provincial environment and natural resources office, that she was impressed with Garcia’s program of preserving the environment via the planting trees.
“I will go back to Bataan to personally lead a mangroove planting along the coastal areas here,” said Tamondong.
In what appeared to be her role for an advocacy seen to help preserve what is left of our coastlines, the teenage beauty queen led a coastal cleanup Saturday in Morong and Limay.
The “1Million Trees for 1Bataan” program aims to encourage Bataeños to plant more trees.
This program is being implemented by Garcia and in partnership with Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Sangguniang Kabataan.
Last June 26, 2016, Guinness World Record awarded Bataan the record for the “Most Trees Planted in one Hour by a Team of Unlimited Size in a Single Location.”
Swapnil, adjudicator of Guinness, announced that Bataan successfully planted 223,390 trees surpassing India’s record of 208,751 during that time.
The more than 20,000 people that Garcia himself led were able to plant various seedlings of forest trees like eucalyptus, narra, and fruit trees like cashew, in more than 20 hectares of public lands at the mountain side of Bgy. General Lim below the giant War Memorial Cross in Mount Samat.
Before the coastal cleanup, Tamondong, attended a meeting with Vice-Governor Cris Garcia (representing Gov. Abet Garcia), Miss World Philippines top honcho Arnold Mercado and provincial environment and natural resource office chief Raul H. Mamac.
The first ever visit of a beauty queen here, Tamondong was warmly received by local folks led by Garcia, Helen Escudero, secretary to the office of the governor, Howell Icban and capitol employees and this writer.
In an exclusive interview, Tamondong said one of her advocacies is the preservation of the eco-system and that for her, it is imperative that she gets to “walk her talk” by way of hopping from one place to another and stressing the importance of a clean environment.
