CIRCLE Forum in Eastern Visayas

The Region Eight Administrators League (REAL) CY 2013 1^st Quarter Assembly and Continuing Leadership Seminar has been moved from April 2, 2013 to April 16, 2013 at the Matapat Hall, Camp Ruperto Kangleon, Campetik, Palo, Leyte  to synergize with the Career Executive Service Board (CESB) activity, CES C.I.R.C.L.E. Forum in Region VIII.

Director Imelda Laceras of the Department of Budget and Management who is the president of REAL informed that the Creative Innovations and Reforms for Committed Leadership and Effectiveness (C.I.R.C.L.E.) Forum is a series of monthly, multi-sectoral fora conducted nationwide showcasing exemplary, pioneering and influential leaders from the CES and various fields of governance and development who interact with government executives in “hands-on” and interactive learning experiences while dissecting timely and important issues and concerns in governance and development.

These leaders distill and share their innovations, insights, lessons, practical know-how, and relevant experiences in achieving strategic institutional and sectoral outcomes and in realizing their personal goals from a professional and personal perspective while confronting day-to-day executive challenges, Director Laceras added. 

Director Laceras added that as a major career/ professional development program of the CES Career Development and Life-Long Learning Strategic Framework, the series earns credits for an executive who attends and completes it. It also promotes the CESB’s core objectives of providing meaningful, innovative and effective mechanisms for the personal and professional development of members of the CES, and for strengthening strategic networks and engagements with key sectors who share the same mission of improving governance, managing partnerships, and promoting development and change. 

The REAL headed by DBM Director Imelda C. Laceras is optimistic that this rare joint activity of the REAL and the CESB will not be missed by its members. 

 

Director Laceras expressed gratitude for the support of the members in all the REAL activities.

 

For concerns regarding the activity, the members may contact the head of the REAL Secretariat, Ms. Aleli N. Hernandez of DBM at telephone numbers 053-523-7456 and 053-325-7848. (PIA 8)

 

Ensuring ECC compliance in implementing $214.44-M Samar road project

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Eastern Visayas is closely monitoring the construction of the $214.44 million Secondary National Road Project in Samar Island municipalities to ensure adherence to the Environmental Compliance Certificate issued by the DENR Environmental Management Bureau.

DENR Regional Executive Director Manolito Ragub said that a Multi-partite Monitoring Team (MMT) has been organized to monitor compliance to the ECC. The team is led by Environmental Management Bureau Director Leticia Maceda as chairperson. 

The ongoing road development project, which is being undertaken by the Millennium Challenge Corporation in coordination with the DPWH, covers 222 kilometers (km) stretch in 15 municipalities in two Samar provinces. 

These are Paranas and Hinabangan in Samar; Taft, Sulat, San Julian, Borongan, maydolong, Balangkayan, Llorente, Hernani, MacArthur, Mercedes, Quinapondan, Salcedo and Guiuan in Eastern Samar. 

The project also traverses 134 villages with 23 km crossing the Samar Island Natural Park which hosts 1,267 globally significant species of plants and animals. 

Ragub said that it is the mandate of the DENR to ensure that the environment and ecological safety of human population will not be sacrificed in the course of development. 

“Although the completion of the Samar road project will bring in more benefits to the people, impacts of air and water pollution as well as cutting of trees and protection of biodiversity resources should be addressed and mitigated during the implementation process,” Ragub underscored. 

Major parameters included in the ECC are air and water pollution mitigation and replacement of planted and naturally grown trees that will be affected in the road widening. 

Meanwhile, Reynaldo Barra, engineer and chief of the Environmental Quality Division, said the MMT regularly conducts air and water quality monitoring in areas affected by the project. 

With regards to the cutting of trees along roadsides traversing the SINP, no cutting is being done unless clearance is secured from the DENR through the Protected Area Management Board, the policy-making and governing body of the SINP, Barra said. 

Other members of the MMT include the DENR Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officers of Samar and Eastern Samar; Community Environment and Natural Resources Officers of Catbalogan City, Dolores and Borongan in Eastern Samar; DENR SINP Protected Area Superintendent; Department of Public Works and Highways Region 8; Millennium Challenge Corporation Project Management Office; Millennium Challenge Account- Philippines and its Project Management Consultant; the Provincial Governments of Eastern Samar and Samar; the Mayors of the 15 concerned municipalities; and the non-government organization Road Watch (Bantay Lansangan).

Pilot-testing door to door delivery of pension in remote East Visayas towns

Starting the first quarter of this year, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is piloting the door-to-door delivery of social pension for indigent senior citizens in 10 remote municipalities of the region using services of the Philippine Postal Corporation (Philpost).  

The three-month pilot-testing will be for the deliver, on time, of cash grants, and for the efficient and cost-effective door-to-door delivery, DSWD Region 8 Director Remia Tapispisan said.

A total of 1,180 senior citizens from Limasawa in Southern Leyte; San Jose de Buan, Almagro, and Tagapul-an of Samar; Jipapad in Eastern Samar; and Silvino Lobos, Lapining, Gamay, San Vicente, and Capul of Northern Samar, will receive the quarterly stipend of P1,500 right in their own homes.

It was learned that the signing of the memorandum of agreement was conducted recently between the DSWD Field Office 8 and the Philippine Postal Corporation for the three-month mode delivery of pension.

The DSWD is the lead agency in the implementation of the Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizen, while Philpost has a facility that can service the regionwide distribution of cash grants to beneficiaries who are indigent senior citizens residing in far-flung areas as priority target beneficiaries for the door-to-door delivery.

When the Social Pension Program started in 2011, the DSWD Field Office-8 conducted the distribution at the municipal plaza, and in other areas, and then the agency transferred the funds to the local government units for the latter to handle the giving out of cash grants.

This time, there will be three modes of cash distribution: through the transfer of funds to the local government units, Philpost door-to-door payout, and the Special Disbursing Officers (SDOs) who will go to the municipalities to give the stipend of the social pensioners.

According to Rose Fe Valeriano of the Social Pension Program, the 10 identified municipalities for the door-to-door delivery of social pension are the most hard-to-reach areas by the SDOs.

She added that these officers will take over the disbursing of funds to several municipalities as there are identified LGUs with bad track records in liquidating funds. The SDOs will also take charge in visiting and personally handing out the pension of the bedridden social pension beneficiaries.

“Sometimes it took one to two months for the beneficiary to receive the stipend. It takes that long because in every province, there is only one SDO that disburses the pension except for Leyte which has two SDOs.

The DSWD hopes that with the new mode of payment, the implementation of the Social Pension Program, will be improved and fast tracked.

The government is always finding ways and systems to improve the delivery of social services to the needy public, the DSWD director said.

In far flung and island municipalities, 100 percent of the stipend received by the pensioners was spent for food according to Municipal Social Welfare and Development officers (MSWDOs) and barangay officials. The social pension is changing the lives of indigent beneficiaries, as it allows them to afford to buy food for their daily subsistence and medical needs, it was also learned.

Moreover, the social pension has encouraged senior citizens to stay active and motivated in participating activities for the elderly.

Forging partnerships to intensify campaign vs health care fraud

The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation or PhilHealth in short, is set to conduct on April 4 at the Oriental Hotel Leyte, a Regional Multi-Sectoral Anti-Fraud Awareness Forum aimed at promoting awareness among health care providers and other stakeholders the significance of its anti-fraud program.

PhilHealth Regional Vice President Walter Bacareza informed that the forum will foster public-private partnership with various stakeholders in the fight against health care fraud.

“We have invited our partner health care providers, government agencies, local government units, non-government organizations, civil society organizations, medical societies and accredited collection agencies to join us in this activity,” VP Bacareza said.

No less than Health Secretary Enrique Ona, the OIC President and CEO of PhilHealth and the members of the board of directors are expected to attend the Forum to share their perspective on the anti-fraud campaign, the Regional Vice President of PhilHealth added.

It may be recalled that allegations of fraud crop up every now and then in the country’s health insurance system. Together with abuse and adverse selection, they comprise the triple threat that could potentially compromise the viability and sustainability of social health insurance schemes.

Fraud and abuse in health care come in various forms. In the old Medicare program, documents and signatures of members were purchased; and/or claims were manufactured and submitted for non-existent admissions. These so-called “ghost” admissions unfortunately almost always involved hospitals. Related to these were “family or barangay confinements” wherein several family members or members of the same barangay were admitted at the same time despite the absence of epidemics.

It was learned that another phenomenon is the recycling of patients wherein a “cycle of admission” is observed. Here, members were usually admitted for acute illnesses, re-admitted after a few weeks or months in the same or nearby hospital, and then admitted again in either of the hospitals.

There were the “weekend confinements” where at least 50% of claims submitted by hospitals are incidentally admitted on Fridays or Saturdays then discharged Sunday or early Monday. Interestingly, this is contradictory to the usual Filipino confinement preference – being discharged on a Friday and deferring elective admissions until after the weekend.

In addition, there are the routine fraudulent and abusive practices which include declaring non-dependents as dependents; borrowing of identity; confirming eligibility despite being ineligible, up-coding of disease and procedure codes; and falsifying diagnosis and confinement dates.

There are also schemes referred to as the worst manifestation of adverse selection anywhere in the world. Adverse selection is a technical term that describes behavior in a “voluntary” health insurance system scheme wherein those who are most likely to require hospital care are those who join the scheme. This behavior, which compromises the insurance fund, has prompted country after country all over the world to make membership mandatory.

The National Health Insurance Act of 1995 that created PhilHealth has long stated that membership is mandatory. However, while this provision has been implemented for most part of the formal sector,  it is not yet  fully mandatory for the whole informal sector.

This has resulted to the unethical practice of “patient recruitment” wherein health care providers themselves pay the premium of patients whom they will then treat once the patient has become eligible for benefits. In PhilHealth’s case, eligibility usually takes effect 6 months after premiums were paid for the first three months. For elective surgeries of self-paying members, eligibility vests after 9 months.

Faced with the challenge to minimize and eventually prevent these practices, PhilHealth set up a Fraud Prevention and Detection Unit, now called the Fact Finding Investigation and Enforcement Department.

Together with the legal units in the regional offices, it is working hard to build cases against fraudulent and abusive health care providers. Fifty anti-fraud personnel have been deployed for intensive daily monitoring of ‘tagged’ health care providers.  Moreover, a total of 530 PhilHealth CARES nurses are present on hospital grounds to help ensure that only accurate information on diagnosis and treatment are submitted by providers.

The Prosecution Department has proactively filed cases against several erring hospitals and doctors and PhilHealth is committed that these cases will be quickly acted upon.

PhilHealth is also partnering with health information technology providers to make electronic claims submission a reality soon.

 

Three landmark documents for gender-fair, sensitive portrayal in mass media launched

The Media and Gender Equality Committee (MGEC), chaired by the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) launched on March 22 at the National Telecommunications Office, the three document-outputs, landmarks toward gender-fair mass media.

The three documents are: the Gender Equality Guidelines, Guidelines to Protect Women against Discrimination in Media and Film, and Code of Ethics for Media formulated by the MGEC to achieve gender-fair and sensitive portrayal in mass media and art productions.

This was gathered during the local validation of the Women’s Economic, Development, and Gender Equality Plan or Women’s EDGE Plan for 2013-2016 led by the Philippine Commission on Women.

The Gender Equality Guidelines is also applicable to schools of journalism, communication and information to help prepare students become gender sensitive.

On the issue of media’s self-regulation, the Code of Ethics for Media is offered as a “guide” which media organizations can use in reviewing existing policies and Code of Ethics.

The Guidelines to Protect Women against Discrimination in Media and Film contains provisions that promote the dignity of women and their roles and contributions in the family, community and society.

Those who attended the launching were the PCOO, its attached agencies, Philippine Commission on Women, NTC, Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas, Women Feature Service, Optical Media Board, Movie and Television Review and Classification Board, Film Development Council of the Philippines, Film Academy of the Philippines, and National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

The Magna Carta of Women requires the state to formulate policies and programs for the advancement of women in collaboration with the government and non-government media-related organizations. The law also requires government to raise the consciousness of the general public in recognizing the dignity of women in the family, community, and the society through the strategic use of mass media.

Moreover, the Magna Carta of Women encourages government to ensure allocation of space, airtime, and resources, strengthen programming, production and image-making that appropriately presents women needs, issues, and concerns in all forms of media, communication, information dissemination, and advertising.

The law also requires all media organizations and corporations to integrate into their human resource development components regular on gender equality and gender-based discrimination; create and use gender equality guidelines in all aspects of management, training, production, information, dissemination, communication and programming; and convene a gender equality committee that will promote gender mainstreaming as a framework and affirmative action as a strategy, and monitor and evaluate the implementation of gender equality guidelines.

Environment Dept partners with academe to protect ecologically rich islets in Guiuan

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Eastern Samar State University have inked a memorandum of agreement in a bid to protect and develop the ecologically rich Monbon and Batan Islets in Barangay Bungtod, Guiuan, Eastern Samar.

In a memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed last March 18, the DENR grants rights to ESSU for the special use of the 21.8 hectares Monbon/Batan Islets and pursue the implementation of activities related to sustainable management of coastal and marine resources in said islets.

The MOA provides that the management of the said islets shall now be jointly undertaken by the two parties, DENR Regional Executive Director Manolito Ragub informed.

Monbon/Batan Islets forms part of the total 60,448 hectares Guiuan Marine Reserve Protected Landscape and Seascape (GMRPLS), a protected area under the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act of 1992 or Republic Act No.7586.

Under the agreement, the ESSU represented by its Administrator, Andres Pagatpatan, Jr., adhere to prescribed environmental protection measures as it makes use of the Monbon/Batan Islets and its vicinities.

Sustainable activities to be pursued include among others: resource and habitat conservation, protection, rehabilitation, and introduction of ecotourism projects for educational and research purposes.

On the other hand, the DENR through its Regional Executive Director Manolito Ragub, shall delineate and demarcate the exact boundaries of the islets and provide ESSU the map of the area which could be used in planning and implementing project activities.

Being inside the GMRPLS, the activities of ESSU in the Monbon/Batan islets shall be duly indorsed by the GMRPLS Protected Area Management Board, the governing Board of GMRPLS which has a multi- sectoral membership, RED Ragub said.

GMRPLS PAMB endorsed the approval and issuance of a Special Use Agreement within Protected Area (SAPA) per PAMB resolution No. 004 dated October 2009.

However, meantime that the SAPA issuance is still suspended, operation of the ESSU is legally based on the Special Land Use Permit, this MOA, and the provisions in the Local Government Code of 1991, Ragub added.

The DENR Director said the agreement shall cover a period of three years renewable for another three years, until a SAPA is in place.

ESSU is a duly recognized government academic institution mandated by law to provide quality advanced education, research and extension services particularly in the province of Eastern Samar where Monbon/Batan Islets are located.

The DENR recognizes the need to involve various stakeholders such as ESSU and other agencies particularly the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, non-government organizations in the management and protection of areas like Monbon/Batan Islets, Ragub said.

East Visayas women occupy only 1/4 of electoral posts

The results of the last National and Local Elections conducted in May 2010 showed that women occupy only 25.4% or one-fourth of electoral positions in Eastern Visayas region.

The National Statistical Coordination Board in Region 8 said that men dominated all electoral positions at 74.6%, but largely the congressional, gubernatorial and vice-gubernatorial positions at 83.3%.

On the other hand, a considerable proportion vice mayors are women at 27.3%, mayors, 25.9% and board members, 23.2% of local legislative bodies.

According to NSCB, in the 2010 elections, only 21.4 percent of those elected to government positions in the country, were women.

In the Philippine Senate, in the outgoing 15th Congress, out of 24 senators only three are women.

The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of promoting gender equality and empowering women, which targets 50.0% of electoral positions to be held by women by 2015, is still far from being achieved.

However, although only a quarter of electoral seats are occupied by Eastern Visayas women, they are in equal footing with men in terms of exercising their rights to suffrage.

Based on the data of the Commission on Elections, voters’ turnout among women (80.8%) was slightly higher than among men (80.0%). Women posted higher voters’ turnout than their male counterpart in all provinces, except in Southern Leyte.

"Pamalandong," Palo, Leyte's Holy Week traditions

All roads lead to Palo, Leyte which is about 7 kilometers from Tacloban City, on Good Friday as the faithful from all over Eastern Visayas flock there for the observance of Holy Week traditions that have been kept alive all through the years.

 

Aptly, Palo was declared in the Diocesan Synod of 1910 as a center of faith and religiosity in Eastern Visayas.

At center of the activities is the Archdiocese of Palo under the pastorship of Archbishop John Du and the parish priest of the Lord’s Transfiguration Parish Monsignor Bernardo Pantin, with full support from the Municipal Government of Palo under the leadership of Mayor Remedios Loretto Petilla. 

The Holy Week tradition starts with the Palm Sunday rites held at the Lourdes Grotto at the Church’s patio with a vantage view as it is facing the highway.

On Holy Thursday, the priests of each vicariate gather with the Archbishop to consecrate holy oils, which are used throughout the year for the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Orders, and the Anointing of the Sick. This ancient practice, which goes back to the fifth century, is known as the Chrism Mass and stresses the role of the bishop as a successor to the apostles. "Chrism" is a mixture of oil and balsam used for the holy oils.

It is during this time when all the priests under the Archdiocese renew their vow in the presence of Archbishop Du.

At 5:00 o’clock in the afternoon, “The Last Supper” is observed in the cathedral with Archbishop Du leading the activity.

The Pamalandong or meditation on Good Friday is the highlight of the Palo Lenten traditions. So grand the Pamalandong has become that several Palo roads have to be closed and traffic has to be rerouted.

Pamalandong because of its significance and crowd-drawing potentials has been adopted as the first part of the 4Ps Tourism Promotion program of the municipal government under the present administration of Mayor Remedios Petilla; the other Ps being “Patron ha Palo” (Fiesta in Palo), “Pagbalik ha Palo” (Leyte Gulf Landing Commemoration) and “Pasko ha Palo.”

Pamalandong is a re-enactment of the Lord´s Passion celebrated in Palo. It consists of religious rituals which start at 12:00 at noon at the Lourdes Grotto at the grounds of the Palo Cathedral. 

The Good Friday rites include "The seven Last Words" as explained by the best priests in the Archdiocese, during which, the Passion of Christ is re-enacted by participants in full regalia who underwent recollection to spiritually prepare them for the role they would be playing.  

“Providing spiritual assistance to those who are participating in the re-enactment is important because the role the actors will be doing is part of a spiritual activity,” Msgr. Pantin stressed.

Oldest of Palo’s Holy Week traditions is the Penitentes, a penitential fraternity of cassocked, barefoot, and hooded members organized by Fray Pantaleon de le Fuente, OFM in 1984 supposedly to replace the flagellants, fanatics who whipped themselves or have themselves whipped to atone for wrong doings, whose cult of fanatics was gaining momentum among the faithful.

It is popularly known among the locals as “tais-dupol,” as those penitents who wear “tais” or pointed hoods are married men and “dupol” for single men.

With the seventh last word uttered and the death of Christ depicted and brought down from the cross, a procession that includes all the biblical characters of the Passion play starts.

A quaint Good Friday local custom is the gathering of the leaves from the mock-forest where the three crosses stand, by the people who believe that the same would bring luck, cure illness and other attributes.

With their faith rekindled and their thirsty souls quenched, the pious go home ready once more to face trials and tribulations.

New ordinance calls for responsible dog-ownership for rabies-free Leyte

The members of the Leyte Provincial Board recently passed an ordinance that calls for the promotion of responsible dog-ownership for the control and elimination of rabies in the province.

 

The passage of the ordinance authored by First District of Leyte Board Member Ryan Lawrence Tiu is in time with the observance of Rabies Awareness and Control Month in March and is in accordance with the Philippine Rabies Control Program vision to declare the Philippines rabies-free by the year 2020.  

The ordinance, “Responsible dog and feline ownership and rabies control and elimination ordinance of Leyte” is the third ordinance authored by BM Tiu that was approved by members of the provincial board since he took over the post vacated by the untimely demise of his father BM Atty. Roque Tiu, last August, 2012.

The First District Board Member said that the ordinance seeks to promote humane treatment of dogs and felines which will redound to the control and elimination of rabies in the province of Leyte.

Calling for responsible pet ownership, the ordinance  provides that owners should have their pets vaccinated against rabies  and must maintain registration card which contains necessary information related to the vaccinations conducted for accurate record, and see to it that pets always have proper veterinary care.

The ordinance also seeks for the establishment and maintenance of veterinarian-client patient relationship; provide preventive and therapeutic health care for the dogs or cats under their care in consultation.

Owners are also ordered to observe proper waste disposal of pets’ waste, noise control, not allowing their pets to go astray and provide exercise and mental stimulation appropriate to the pets depending on their age, breed and health status.

BM Tiu said that if owners can no longer provide care to their pets, they can turn them over to a public or private animal care facility; have their pets be adopted by a qualified adopting owner or entrust their pets to a veterinarian willing to provide alternative care or to existing animal welfare and protection group.

The ordinance also mandates local government units to strictly enforce impounding activities to eliminate stray dogs, allocate funds to augment the implementation of the national rabies prevention and control program and ensure that Republic Act 8484 or the Animal Welfare Act of 1998 is properly implemented.

Electrocution and other brutal force or inhumane means of killing pets are also prohibited by the Ordinance.

Those who would violate the ordinance could be penalized with P500 up to P3,500 and six month imprisonment, depending on the discretion of the court.

Strict implementation of the ordinance will fast-track the attainment of Leyte as a rabies-free province, BM Tiu said. 

Rejuvenating old trees through tree surgery

Pedestrians couldn’t help but notice the new young look of the old and mature native trees at the Regional Office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources along Santo Niño Extension in Tacloban City.

Old trees can be rejuvenated or rehabilitated. This is the answer given to satisfy the curious minds. Several staff revealed that tree rehabilitation which includes activities like tree surgery, sanitation cutting, pruning and cleaning has been conducted from January to February of this year.
 

Taking good care of trees is a must. If the owner does not properly care for the trees, the results are large ungainly giants that are completely out of control and are an unsightly mess. 

In many cases, these old trees can be brought back to a more manageable state. The primary means of renovating older trees is through judicious and properly selected pruning cuts.

Forester Carlito Buante, OIC Chief  of the Environmental  Research and Conservation  Division (ERCD) is the study leader of the research project on tree rehabilitation strategies being implemented by the Ecosystems Research and Development Service (ERDS) of the DENR in Region 8. 

To give them a young look, old and mature native trees were rehabilitated by pruning the rotten parts of branches and trunks infected with fungi; the decayed portions were cleaned out and chlorox, coal tar and fungicide were applied, Forester Bulante said.

Among the trees treated were agoho (Casuarina equisetifolia),  kamagong (Diospyrus philippinensis),  narra (Pterocarpus indicus), molave (Vitex parviflora), and other mature trees with their canopies shielding the streets,  causing hazard to big trucks plying the street,  and tangling up the electric and telephone cables.

Pruning operations were done by the personnel of the DENR Region 8 and treatments were made to remove the rotten parts of the branches and trunks that were infested with certain species of fungi, Forester Buante disclosed.

After cleaning out the decayed portions, chemicals like chlorox, coal tar and fungicide were applied to preserve the native trees and make them live longer, he added.   This will make pedestrians safe from the danger of falling twigs and other debris.

People in Eastern Visayas will see more tree rejuvenation activities as the group of Forester Butante has also slated for the application of tree rehabilitation activities are those along Magsaysay Boulevard and Benigno Aquino Avenue in Tacloban City, MacArthur Park and the Leyte Landing site in Candahug, Palo, Leyte.

Other places in Eastern Visayas like Samar are also targeted as sites of tree surgery operations of the ERDS.

 

This activity of the DENR is in line with the goal of averting disaster and fostering disaster-preparedness during natural calamities caused by the changing climate,  a worldwide phenomenon that causes sea levels to rise,  small islands to disappear,  landslides, flashfloods and tsunamis to occur, thereby  endangering   human lives and properties.

Under the National Greening Program (NGP), forests are rehabilitated, indigenous forest tree species and fruit trees are planted in open spaces and most of the upland areas, and old trees are saved to ensure that the life support systems that fed, clothe, shield and shelter people will continue to sustain the present and future generations, Forester Butane said.

The NGP goals include making the wood-based economy stronger and more competitive in the world market. 

The technologies that make this possible like tree surgery and the application of mycorrhiza and organic fertilizers on seedlings and plants are all being encouraged by scientists and researchers alike. 

Farmers and farming communities are encouraged to plant more trees to attain the target of 1.5 billion trees planted until 2016 to help promote green economy. (PIA 8)