DAPITAN CITY, Zamboanga del Norte, Phlippines – Palaro athletes from the Ilocos Region who participated in the recently concluded Palarong Pambansa here showed their industriousness when they planted for three days some 2,000 mangrove seedlings before they left this coastal Shrine City which served as venue of the 2011 National Schools Games.

Bartolome Teneza, delegation manager of the 300-strong Ilocos Regional Athletic Association (IRAA), said the 85,000 residents here will surely benefit from the tree-planting activity of the Ilocano athletes from Ilocos Norte, La Union, Ilocos Sur, and Pangasinan who were led by their coaches, chaperons, and other regional officials.

Teneza said the activity – conducted on May 5, 10, and 13 – was coordinated by IRAA delegation officers with the local office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) which also helped provide the mangrove seedlings and cuttings.

According to Teneza, the Ilocos athletic contingent was inspired by Dr. Jose P. Rizal, a known environmentalist, who spent over two years of his exiled life in Dapitan, then a coastal village of the old Zamboanga province.
“A green environment will generate healthy athletes,” Teneza added.