Davao Sur students, gov't employees help regreen Mt. Apo

DAVAO CITY, Oct. 12 (PNA) -- High school students from Davao del Sur recently joined government employees and private corporations in the planting of trees at the Mt. Apo National Park, a regular activity conducted to protect and preserve the mountain.

About 50 students of Tudaya High School (THS) led by Robert Ladog, the student council president and officers and employees of the National Commission on Indegenous Peoples (NCIP) in Davao del Sur and the Hedcor Sibulan, Inc. (HSI) planted 800 Narra trees and Tinikaran seedlings along the newly opened farm-to-market road in the area.

Together with the group was Bagobo-Tagabawa tribal leader Rudy Agtad.

It was the second major activity of HSI which committed to protect and preserve the 1,000 hectares of the natural park's watershed catchments where it (HSI) inked a memorandum of agreement last July for the Mt. Apo watershed management plan (WMP).

HSI, a subsidiary of Aboitiz Power Corporation, invested on a 42.5 megawatt Sibulan Hydropower Project in Sta. Cruz town of Davao del Sur province.

The hydropower project of HSI which is a greenfield run-of-river hydropower project, will generate 212 million kilowatt hours of clean energy for Davao starting August 2009.