None of the 182 pine trees ever had a chance.
We, members of the theater group Open Space Productions, started out as volunteers for the planned rally on January 20, 2012, and soon found ourselves at the forefront of the movement to protest the killing of 182 trees on Luneta Hill for SM City Baguio's expansion plan.
I had to go through my archives for articles I wrote for this blog and my column in a local paper then to help jog my memory, it's been eight years since Ethan and I lugged our equipment to Malcolm Square to set-up a basic light and sound system for the rally, while our colleagues joined the march down Session Road.
The movement's argument was simple: whatever SM City Baguio planned was not worth the lives of the 182 pine trees in that forested side of Luneta Hill.
SM City Baguio, not expecting the snowball effect that the January 20 rally would have, found itself fumbling in the weeks that followed, which had them forwarding different rationales to counter the movement's, these are some I remember:
1. They're building a parking facility to solve Baguio's traffic problem and address climate change.
When the protest movement pointed out the flaws in this argument, citing, among many other adverse impact their project would have, the probability of ground instability, increased risk of landslides and increased water runoff towards lower lying areas and with that flooding, they proclaimed:
2. The structure they wanted to build was a necessity as it would act as a retaining wall that would prevent landslides in the area.
People in Baguio, and the rest of the Cordillera, know every well that vegetation, trees in particular, significantly help in soil stabilization and the argument that removing those 182 trees to allow their expansion plan would prevent landslides just did not, no pun intended, hold water. And that was just one of the many environmental impacts that the expansion project would have. There's also the possible increase in air pollution in the area when the air-purifying trees are removed. And so they said:
3. They're replacing the trees, full grown, mature pine trees, with a "Sky Garden" that would have the same greening effect as the forest.
But an artificial garden can never replicate the benefits derived from a forest of full-grown pine trees.
4. They're going to earth-ball the trees to preserve them and keep them alive.
And that was one of the biggest lies they ever said.
On the night of April 9, despite the existence of a Temporary Environmental Protection Order, the killings began. Vigilant members of the movement have been holding vigil in the area for several nights already to guard the trees and the distinct sound of branches breaking and chainsaws began. I received the call towards midnight and when I arrived in the area, I found scene on Luneta Hill quite absurd: you could make out the silhouettes of dozens of personnel - security guards, construction workers, but the forest remain unlit. If they believed they weren't doing anything wrong, why do it under cover of darkness?
More rallies followed, the cause by this time was already getting international attention, and then DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo offered to mediate between the two sides. At a conference room in Camp Crame, representatives from those two sides sat on opposite sides of a long table, with Robredo at the head:
On one side, I remember being with leaders of Cordillera Global Network led by its president, Glo Abaeo, Mike Bengwayan who was one of the first to raise the alarm bells and initiated the January 20 rally, our lawyers Chit Daytec-Yangot and Christopher Donaal, volunteer Mike Arvisu and others.
And on the other side of the table: Hans Sy. Then Mayor Mauricio Domogan. Then Congressman Bernardo Vergara. Then DENR Secretary Ramon Paje and others.
The seating arrangement wasn't random at all which made me wonder then which side Baguio's mayor and congressman were on in this. While our side of the table pleaded the case for the trees, the other side justified their murder.
Much of SM's argument then revolved around the proposal to earth-ball the trees, transplant them to preserve them.
It was a stalemate, basically. But at least we won the right to be allowed to inspect their earth-balling method.
The scene of the crime was ghastly, and that is not an exaggeration. Gaping holes have been dug around several trees, what remained of their roots bundled up in sacks. From the expansion site, we were led to the transplantation site on the other side of the hill where they have already started transplanted previously earth-balled trees. They were propped up by bamboos to keep them upright.
And this is where we see that SM City Baguio lied and never gave those trees the slightest chance to survive: that site is now SM City Baguio's Sky Ranch, the transplanted earth-balled trees buried under the foundations of those carnival rides and other structures.
The parking facility is now open, and photos of the "sky garden" are spreading all over social media sites - the artificial garden they claimed would replicate the environmental benefits that Baguio has been getting from the forest they removed.
And now, SM has the gall to offer itself to redevelop the public market.
They've bastardized the birthplace of Baguio as a hill station and a city, what would make anyone think that they would respect the city's public market's historical and cultural value?
The Mayor has announced that the city government has rejected Robinson's offer to redevelop the public market.
Sana all.
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