Yes to Graduation Legacy Act

The House of Representatives has approved on the third and final reading the House
Bill 8728 or Graduation Legacy for the Environment Act which requires all graduating
elementary, high school and college students to plant trees as a requirement for
graduation.
Approved House Bill 8728 is thumbs up for the House of Representatives because
elementary students will know terraforming earlier.
According to the bill, trees should be planted in any of the following areas: forest lands,
mangrove and protected areas, ancestral domains, civil and military reservations, urban
areas under greening plan of the local government, inactive and abandoned mine sites
and other lands. If the law would be passed, elementary students would know more
about planting.
In addition to this, more trees would be planted and pollution in the air would be
lessened.
The Philippines is one of the most polluted countries in the world and trees can help
lessen it. Many students will graduate by the year 2020. If each of them would plant 10
trees, thousands of trees would grow.
Furthermore, indigenous and more species of trees would arise and species of birds
would have plenty of trees to live in.
According to the bill, trees should be planted according to the place with reference for
the planting indigenous species of trees. If so, rare species of trees be propagated.
It is truly right to pass this bill for it has many benefits not only to graduates but also for
the entire human race and the earth they live in. Everyone must be part of this tree
planting activity even this bill is not yet passed into law.
 Single-use Plastic, No more
The Philippines generates an estimated 43,684 tons of garbage daily, including 4,609
tons of plastic waste, according to government data, and proper disposal facilities are
lacking for much of it. It is alarming, so banning single-use- plastics should be pushed
by the government for these plastics have harmful effects.
For the environment-plastic has various effects. It is the main cause of pollution that
results to diseases, climate change and the destruction of the ozone layer.
Plastic waste constitutes between 60% and 80% of marine debris and is “one of the
world’s most pervasive pollution problems impacting our oceans and waterways,”
according to the U.N.
Marine life will be put in danger and may extinct if throwing plastics in oceans will
continue.
Also, improper plastic disposal can be the reason of some water- borne diseases.
Plastics can clog in canals that cause floods which contribute to the spread of diseases
such as Leptospirosis, typhoid fever, and cholera.
Moreover, according to researches plastics if burned are more harmful to humans.
The chemicals produced from burning plastics can increase the risk of heart disease,
aggravate respiratory ailments such as asthma and emphysema, and cause rashes,
nausea, or headaches, damages in the nervous system, kidney or liver, in the
reproductive and development system.
Nevertheless, banning single-use plastic is good but if people around have no
discipline, this government measure has no sense.
Banning single-use plastic by the Government is helpful if it is only coupled with
people’s self-discipline.