“Magiting”, the Department of Education- Quezon City (DepEd QC) partners with ABS-CBN Foundation- Bantay Kalikasan in planting 800 Malapapaya seedlings, which covers two hectares of the La Mesa Watershed.

Over 200 principals coming from different schools in Quezon City actively participated in the, “Protect a Hectare at La Mesa Watershed and Guided Tour in La Mesa Ecopark” activity.

ABS-CBN Foundation- Bantay Kalikasan (BK) inspired the teachers to discuss environmental issues in the classrooms and bring these issues closer to the hearts of their students. This activity can be used as a content for their lectures inside their class. BK and DepEd QC’s goal is to let students visit and explore the Ecopark and the Watershed for this is a living laboratory for the environment.

Dr. Natividad P. Bayubay the OIC School Division Superintendent of DepEd QC proposed to all the principals to implement a tree-planting activity as one of the requirements before senior high school students graduate.  “I’m planning to ask for help from the city government for them to allocate from the green fund. I would be asking for around Php3 Million to support the tree-planting activity to require our schools so...might [also] get 100 hectares for them to sponsor” said Dr. Natividad.

He also added that he wanted all the teachers in Quezon City to have this learning experience so they would be familiar when it comes to environment protection. He hopes that they can transfer the learnings they had on the tree-planting activity with their students.

The DepEd Quezon City aims to continue this environmental activity to raise their level of consciousness about this important matter. The “Magiting” accentuated the urge to protect the environment, not only for them to appreciate all the nature’s treasure.

“Isa sa pangunahing vision of DepEd is [to be] makakalikasan and [being mindful of] our environment and this is one thing that we are working on. Taga QC ako, Magiting ako,” Dr. Natividad added.