A lawmaker has urged Filipinos to learn to engage in tree-planting activities to widen the country's whole-of-nation reforestation efforts as he renewed his call to boost the country's greening program.

In his proposed Senate Bill 1539, Senator Ramon Revilla Jr. is seeking to require all graduating elementary, high school, and college students of public educational institutions to plant at least 10 trees each as a prerequisite for graduation.

Revilla said the bill complements the government's National Greening Program — ensuring "the cultivation of socially-responsible citizenry" of the future generations of Filipinos.

The solon also backed his fellow lawmaker, Senator Cynthia Villar who chairs the Senate Committee on Environment, Natural Resources, and Climate Change, in urging the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to take the lead on the government's greening program.

"DENR should not only focus on the planting of the seedlings but should also assure its survivability," Revilla said.

He also encouraged the public to only plant species endemic to their respective region.

Under the proposed measure, trees shall be planted in any of the forestlands, mangrove forests, protected areas, ancestral domains, civil and military reservations, urban areas under the greening plans of local government units, inactive and abandoned mine sites, and other suitable lands.