A proposed law at the House of Representatives that requires all students from elementary, high school, and college to plant trees before they can graduate was approved on the third and final reading yesterday.

House Bill (HB) No. 8728, called the Graduation Legacy for the Environment Act, requires students to plant at least 10 trees each before they’re allowed to graduate. According to the bill, the “trees will serve as their living legacy to the environment and to the future generation of Filipinos.”

The trees can be planted in forestlands, mangrove and protected areas, and ancestral domains, among others. Students have to make sure that the trees they will plant are appropriate to the location, climate, and topography. They will also be encouraged to plant trees which are indigenous to the area.

The Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education are required to implement the bill, in partnership with other government agencies. The budget necessary for its implementation will be included in the agency’s annual budget.

The bill’s principal authors are Representatives Gary Alejano, Strike Revilla, and Noel Villanueva. The bill was filed in December last year.

In his explanatory note for HB 1154, one of the bills consolidated for HB 8728, Alejano said that if enacted, the country would have millions of new trees each year.

“With over 12 million students graduating from elementary and nearly five million students graduating from high school and almost 500,000 graduating from college each year, this initiative, if properly implemented, will ensure that at least 175 million new trees would be planted each year. In the course of one generation, no less than 525 billion can be planted under this initiative,” Manila Standard quoted him saying.

The bill currently doesn’t have a counterpart in the Senate, reported CNN Philippines. It will be sent to the Senate for its concurrence.

This article, Bill requiring students to plant trees before graduation passes third reading, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company. Want more Coconuts? Sign up for our newsletters!