PULILAN, Bulacan , Philippines – Officials and employees of the Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC), along with a number of journalists, kicked off their tree-planting activity along the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) last Saturday.
Their target until August next year: 20,000 trees of 67 varieties – as gift to Metro Pacific Investment Corp. (MPIC) chairman Manuel Pangilinan who recently celebrated his 67th birthday.
“This is our birthday gift to our chairman,†said Ramoncito Fernandez, MNTC president and chief executive officer.
He said the tree-planting activity is also part of MNTC’s corporate social responsibility, adding, “We are aiming to build a better environment and we thought of starting with tree planting.â€
With over 180,000 vehicles passing through NLEX on a daily basis, he said they have to plant more trees to combat carbon emissions from cars.
Marlene Ochoa, MNTC corporate communications head, said they have planted over 60,000 trees since they started their environment program, not only along NLEX but also in other parts of Central Luzon.