NEWS WRITING

Direction: Write a news material from the following data.

WHO: Environment Secretary Ramon Paje

WHAT: Paje lauded DepEd’s project to plant at least five native tree species on school
campuses

WHEN: Saturday

WHY: The project will boost the government’s urban greening program.

HOW: As instructed by Education Secretary Armin Luistro, all teachers and students in
763 public schools in Metro Manila are to take part in the tree-planting program of the
current administration by growing trees endemic to the Philippines.

PAJE’S STATEMENT:

 The tree-planting initiative would not only strengthen efforts to inculcate

environmental awareness among the youth, but would also teach them the
importance of preserving native trees.
 “The project will boost the propagation of native trees, especially those which are
slowly disappearing, and which Filipinos use for food, medicine and other uses.”
 “More importantly, the project will educate millions of students and other Filipinos
on the richness of our biodiversity as a natural heritage, and they do not need to
go to the mountains to see these trees.”
 The DepEd project would complement the urban greening component of the
government’s National Greening Program.

RELATED FACTS:

 About 3,600 species of trees are found in the country.

 The most famous tree is narra, touted as the national tree which wood is said to
be one of the toughest in the world.
 Other Philippine native trees are guijo, kamagong, red and white lauan, tindalo,
yakal, and molave.
 The National Greening Program which was established in February 2011 under
Executive Order No. 26 seeks to plant some 1.5 billion trees covering about 1.5
million hectares by 2016.
 As of 2013, the DENR has planted 142.6 million seedlings spread out over
232,000 hectares of land nationwide.
 The program generated more than 364,000 jobs.