Archival plan: Plant 250,000 trees in 3 years to honor voters
Cebu City Mayor-elect Nestor Archival Sr. | file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Mayor-elect Nestor Archival Sr. is eyeing to plant at least 250,000 trees during his three-year term in office, a tribute to the more than 256,000 voters who supported his successful mayoral bid in the May 2025 elections.
Archival shared his plan during the city’s World Environment Day celebration on June 5, at Plaza Independencia, where he reiterated his commitment to reforestation and environmental sustainability.
“Planting of trees is very close to my heart. During the time of Mayor [Edgardo] Labella, from the start, he was targeting three million trees. But for my time, I will be targeting less. I won because of my 256,000-plus votes from my supporters—that’s why my goal is to plant 250,000 trees from now until the end of my term to honor them,” Archival said.
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Archival said the city-wide tree-planting initiative will likely begin in August, ideally in the mountain barangays, coinciding with the start of the rainy season.
“August is the rainy season… that’s why planting during hot periods, most plants die,” he said.
He added that he intended to consult with barangay captains to identify planting sites.
His plan includes working with farmers who own at least one hectare of land to plant fruit-bearing trees, with area delineation as part of the initiative.
“Magtubo na bisa’g human nimo pangguna, ang tree nagsige’g tubo. So mao na atong buhaton,” he said.
(It will grow even if you have clean the weeds, the tree will continue to grow. So that is what we will do.)
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To support the program, Archival said he would seek help from the Metro Cebu Water District (MCWD), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Department of Agriculture, and the City Agriculture Department for seedlings.
Apart from tree planting, Archival is also advocating for a shift to organic farming in Cebu City. However, he acknowledged that transitioning from synthetic to organic agriculture will be gradual.
“There’s no organic ordinance yet, but we are working on it,” he said.
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Archival lamented that farmers continue to rely on synthetic inputs because those were what the government supplies.“The problem is that what (the people are) provided these days are all chemical,” he said.
He noted that the city currently spends around P30 million a year on chemical-based farm inputs.
He said it would be unfair to impose an organic-only policy when the city itself could not yet provide organic resources.
While he did not plan to ban outright synthetic fertilizers for now, Archival vowed to work toward a slow and progressive transition.
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