THE City of Pines is lagging behind the country’s greening program for only planting not even half of the required planted seedlings.

In the report of the Commission on Audit (COA) on Baguio City, auditors revealed that the summer capital of the country failed to comply with Executive Order (EO) No. 26 and the National Greening Program (NGP) for only planting 37.38 percent of the required seedling to be planted.

Under the order, the country will pursue sustainable development for poverty reduction, food security, biodiversity conservation, and climate change mitigation and adaptation through the NGP.

The order also states that the NGP aims to plant some 1.5-billion trees covering about 1.5 million hectares for a six-year period from 2011 to 2016.

However, when verified, the Audit commission noticed that the city government through the City Environment and Parks Management Office (Cepmo) “did not formulate guidelines on NGP.”

“Only 37.38 percent or 5,380 seedlings were planted out of the 14,390 seedlings that are required to be planted by its officials and emplo-yees during the year,” COA reported.

The Cepmo said that the planting activity is a continuing project integrated in City Council Resolution No. 248, series of 1993, declaring the months of June and July as Ecology Awareness and Tree Planting Months.

But auditors replied that even if the planting activity is a continuing project of Baguio City, it should not be a reason for it not to strictly comply with the requirements of the order.

Ocular inspection at the different planting areas in Dominican Hill, Melvin Jones, and the Skating Rink Area of Burnham Park revealed that the plant site at Dominican Hill is not well maintained.

“The plants are hidden by weeds and wild sunflower plants. Some are already dying and drying up due to lack of water and proper cultivation,” COA reported.

The city government also failed to institute monitoring teams to check if the plants are taken care of.

They revealed that some seedlings at Burnham Park were uprooted, stepped on and removed to give way to the temporary booths for trade fairs and landscape entries that were put up during the Panagbenga festival in February 2012.

“In view of the city government’s partial implementation of the requirements of EO 26, the government, as whole, may not be able to achieve the objectives of the NGP . . . within the prescribed period of six years from 2011 to 2016,” COA commented.

COA recommended that the Baguio local government formulate guidelines on the NGP implementation and require all personnel, including city officials, to annually plant at least 10 seedlings over the five-year period.

In response, the Cepmo chief informed that they will include in their accomplishment report the bamboo seedlings planted in the past that were “inadvertently omitted” in the 2011 report.

Guidelines will be formulated regarding the implementation of the NGP for dissemination to all departments, Cepmo said.