MOVER embarks on tree planting project

After completing another environment cleanup project earlier this month, non-profit Filipino group MOVER continues to fulfill its commitment to help the CNMI community by preparing this time for a tree planting project.

MOVER president Jun Lapeceros said his group’s volunteers are now ready to go out into the field again to till soil and plant trees to make the tropical islands even greener.

Lapeceros said Saipan’s Rotary Club came out with the project concept. He said Rotary’s director for community activities, Superior Court Associate Judge Juan T. Lizama, is finalizing details of the project.

“Rotary Club chose MOVER to be its partner in environmental activities,” Lapeceros said. “We are committed to these activities after the three cleanup projects that we completed.”

MOVER has over 150 members. Established in 2001 as an organization of Filipino workers in the CNMI, the association has metamorphosed into an environmentalist group, bagging an environmental achievement award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 9 in 2004.

For nine consecutive Sundays from Jan. 8 to March 5 earlier this year, MOVER’s volunteers canceled days of relaxation by trooping to Saipan’s Hagoi Drive—the road leading to Susupe Lake—and the Tun Joaquin Road in Chalan Kanoa to pick up trash of all sorts from illegal dumpsites that had added to the tourist island’s eyesores.

Volunteers, including some children, went out on the field early in the morning and toiled for hours without pay to fulfill their civic work.

When asked if MOVER volunteers do not get tired from doing voluntary civic work, Lapeceros said: “We just made the cleanup activities our physical exercise. After lunches, we sing karaoke and relax.”

MOVER and its volunteers expressed gratitude to those who helped them made their projects a success, including Mobil Oil Mariana Islands Inc., Rotary Club, FOMACON, DFS Galleria, and Pacific Trading Co.

Government agencies and officials who provided support included Gov. Benigno Fitial, Lt. Gov. Timothy Villagomez, the office and staff of Saipan Mayor Juan Borja Tudela, House Speaker Oscar Babauta, Vice Speaker Justo Quitugua, and congressman Jesus Lizama, among many others.

In the past, MOVER also cleaned up stormwater drainages along Saipan’s western shores, stretching from San Antonio to San Roque.