More than 500 seedlings planted to save Marikina Watershed

 Brother Philippines employee holds a seedling. 

Employees from Brother International Philippines Corporation and Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) teamed up last Saturday, October 11 for a noble cause – to save the Marikina Watershed.

A total of 575 seedlings were planted in Sitio Binayoyo, Barangay Calawis, Antipolo City, as part of Brother Philippines Marikina Watershed Project. The project which started in 2010 in collaboration with PBSP, aims to bring back the watershed’s capacity to hold water in order to prevent floods in Metro Manila and other low-lying areas. A total of 5,000 seedlings were planted in the area since the project started.

“We identified this area as one of the priority areas for tree planting activities because the Marikina Watershed is one of the areas holding the water before it goes down to NCR especially in the Marikina area, in the low-lying areas. We know of the adverse effect of climate change and we’ve seen it during Ondoy,” said Glenn Hocson, president of Brother Philippines

After the tree planting, Brother Philippines and PBSP led the turn-over of farming equipment such as a shredder, mixer and water pump to the community. This is part of the project’s livelihood component to help the community grow the fruit bearing seedlings that were planted in their area.

“We want to support the community of Sitio Binayoyo to have a means to support themselves,” he added.

According to Hocson, the tree planting project is part of the Global Brother’s company culture to give back to the environment and its stakeholders while at the same time, cultivating a good relationship among its employees.

“First is that we are contributing back to our environment. Second as a group, we have a reason to go out and have bonding time outside the office. We are mandated to have these activities to make sure that we contribute back to our stakeholders.” Hocson said.