Reforestation advocate is SBMA’s 2008 employee of the year

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    SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — A community worker, who organized Aeta tribesmen to reforest grasslands and other open slopes in this free port in the last five years, was chosen the most outstanding employee of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) for 2008.

    Edmond de Jesus, a community development officer of the SBMA Ecology Center, received the 2008 Employee of the Year (EOY) award on Friday after besting four other finalists from various strategic business units (SBUs) of the SBMA.

    De Jesus organized members of the indigenous Aeta tribe in Subic into the Pastolan Forest Conservation Group (PFCG) in 2004 — orienting them first on the need to conserve forests and stressing their role as forest protectors, then programming reforestation activities that soon covered more than 100 hectares at the slopes of Mt. Sta. Rita.

    According to the SBMA, various groups in the Subic Bay Freeport have planted a total of 152,713 new trees in the last 12 years, but it was the PFCG that accounted for the most — a total of 102,100 which also had a high survival rate of 94 percent.

    Under the guidance and encouragement of De Jesus, the PFCG, which is composed of former members of the “Tabas” ground maintenance unit, exceeded its annual reforestation target of 20,000 trees.

    De Jesus, who became the third SBMA EOY winner since the awards program was launched in 2006, received a cash prize of P20,000, a laptop computer, a trophy and a gold EOY pin.
    He also received praises from Subic officials, including SBMA Chairman Feliciano Salonga, who noted the irony that while the agency was being scrutinized about the 366 trees at the proposed site of a hotel-casino project here, the agency has successfully nurtured more than 152,000 new trees.

    “Laid out in single row and 10 meters apart, these new trees would cover more than 1,500 kilometers, or about 16 times the whole length of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, the longest tollway in the country,” Salonga said.

    De Jesus, for his part, said he has found much satisfaction in his eight years of work at the SBMA Ecology Center because of his community work with the Aeta tribe.

    “The Aetas have also taught me a lot,” De Jesus said. “They have been one of my best companions in this journey through life.”

    Aside from De Jesus, four other finalists were honored during the SBMA EOY awards night. They are: Gigi Estalilla, an information officer at the Public Relations Department, who was chosen first runner-up for initiating a nine-hectare “green garden” project also at the Pastolan Aeta village here.

    Second runner-up was Benjamin Evia III, a security officer at the Law Enforcement Department, who was nominated for establishing a traffic scheme in the Subic Bay Freeport, the SBMA Traffic Safety Board, and the SBMA Bike Cops, which are now being emulated all over the country.

    Noli Jumaquio, a junior recreation facility attendant at the Tourism Department, meanwhile received the third runner-up prize for his “malasakit” for the Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center (SBECC), which hosted 57 events on its first year and came to be a major revenue-earner for the agency.

    The fourth runner-up was Andrei Agustin, an executive assistant to the SBMA senior deputy administrator for support services, who was nominated for being the prime-mover in the accomplishments of the “problem-solving office” of the SBMA.

    Aside from getting trophies and cash prizes, the five winners also received gifts like personal refrigerators, television sets, overnight accommodations at a Subic hotel, and a “Guyito” box from the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

    The SBMA Employee of the Year award, a project of the SBMA Human Resource Management Department, aims to recognize and reward exemplary services rendered by employees. The awards program is an offshoot of the Civil Service Commission’s directive for government agencies to establish a program on awards and incentives for service excellence (PRAISE).

    The first SBMA EOY, Lt. Joel G. Viray, was conferred the Civil Service Commission’s Pagasa award last year.

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