Arroceros Forest Park, the Philippines’ capital City of Manila’s “Last Lung”, was declared by the city government on Tuesday as a protected permanent forest park.

Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso signed Ordinance No. 8607 on March 3, 2020, declaring the Arroceros Forest Park as a “permanent forest park” to be protected by the city.

“Idineklara na po nating permanent forest park ang Arroceros, ang “last lung” ng Maynila. Dahil dito, hindi natin papayagan ang pagputol ng puno sa loob ng park na ito. Just imagine the daily fumes here in the city, kaya kailangan po natin ito (We have declared Arroceros, the “last lung” of Manila, a permanent forest park. Because of this, we will not allow tree cutting inside this park. Just imagine the daily fumes here in the city, so, we need it),” said Mayor Isko Moreno on his Facebook post.

Arroceros Forest Park enforces the following rules:

* No cutting trees

* No dumping waste products

* No form of excavation within the area of the forest park

Violators will be fined Php 2,500 for their first offense, Php 3,500 for their second offense, and Php 5,000 and or imprisonment not exceeding one year at the court’s discretion, for their third offense.

Netizens immediately started posting their photos visiting the Arroceros Forest Park.

Angelica Santos – Loza shared this precious moment of her and her fiance’s prenuptial photo taken in the forest with the caption, “Glad that it was part of our prenup location ❤️ thanks yorme 😊”

Inaki Sagadal said, “Mag iisang taon na pala akong huling nakadalaw sa parke ng Arroceros. 😜” (It’s been a year since I last visited the Arroceros Park)

Arroceros Forest Park is a 2.2 hectare Urban Forest that was developed in 1993. It is home to over 3,500 trees of diverse variety. It is also inhabited by different fruit trees. The park is a habitat of different bird species.

Manila is in the country’s Luzon island that was recently awarded the World’s Top 2 Trending Destination in the 2020 Travellers’ Choice Awards.

Luzon’s Pangasinan and Zambales provincial governments are reportedly eyeing Daang Kalikasan road to become an eco-tourism draw and are already engaged in tree planting activities to reforest the mountainous site.

SEND CHEERS in the comments below to the people of Manila for this act of preserving Arroceros Forest Park!

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