An Open Letter to President Benigno Aquino III

Dear Mr. President:

We, concerned citizens of the City of Baguio, along with the rest of the country and the world, are begging you, Mr. President, to stand up for our beloved city's environment, heritage, dignity and future by stopping the planned removal of trees on Luneta Hill by SM City Baguio to pave the way for their expansion plan involving a commercial building and a parking facility for the following reasons:

1. SM City Baguio is already the biggest commercial center in the city enjoying a lion's share of the market - this expansion plan is unjustified.

2. Their claim of soil erosion problems in the area will not be solved by removing the trees therein and building two huge concrete structures - common sense dictates that this will, in fact, raise the risk of landslides and flooding in lower lying areas due to increased water run-off.

3. The natural beauty of the City of Baguio, known all over the world as the City of Pines, has been deteriorating rapidly due to a misdirected sense of development. The removal of one of the few remaining forest covers in our city's central business district will further worsen the situation.

4. Our country has been hit by several natural calamities in the last couple of years that resulted in loss of lives and properties. In most cases, as in during the twin typhoons "Ondoy" and "Pepeng" and the more recent "Pablo," deforestation has been cited as among the culprits for the extreme destruction that was wreaked upon us. The removal of more than a hundred trees, in today's world plagued with extreme weather conditions due to climate change, on a hillside where schools are located directly below it places lives, particularly that of students, at risk.

5. The pine trees of Baguio are an invaluable part of its heritage - sacrificing more than a hundred of them to serve the interests of a single corporation is unjust.

6. We do not subscribe to the point of view that SM City Baguio can do as it pleases within their private property - the freedom and rights of one end where the freedom and rights of another begin. We, the people, have a right to a healthy and safe environment. Our constitution guarantees that.

Besides, to this day SM City Baguio have yet to acquire a valid title to the property and the Absolute Deed of Sale that bears your name does not bear your signature. Not to mention that the document was notarized not by government lawyers but by some obscure notary public in Manila. We believe that this is highly suspect that merits an investigation by your office/administration.

7. Our own mayor has turned his back on us, saying "I cannot do anything." Our own city council failed to address the issue. And recently, the court has ruled against us in the case we filed against SM, DENR and DPWH.

You are our only hope. Show us that "tuwid na daan" is more than just a slogan but a principled and determined stand against injustice and oppression for the welfare of the greater majority.

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Sign our petition here: www.change.org/save182baguio

How SM lost the case

It is Christmas time, and what the people of Baguio received from Branch 5 of the Regional Trial Court was the dismissal of the case filed against SM along with DPWH and DENR. So this is probably what Antonio Estevez, the presiding judge meant when he declared in court one day that this case was important to him because he feels saddened by how much Baguio has changed for the worse in the last few years, and because he wanted to leave a lasting legacy to the people of Baguio.

And with the decision his court released on December 3, 2012, this is the legacy he left: set Baguio on a course towards urban decay, environmental destruction in the name of crass commercialism and an unsustainable future where trees are merely seen as obstacles to corporate greed.

And so, people ask:

Did SM win the case? The judge did dismiss the complaint. But wait, SM can’t bring out their infamous backhoes just yet – their tree-cutting permit has already expired. So the trees’ execution will be stayed just a little bit longer. And we do intend to exhaust all legal options available to us, the people, in preventing the death of those trees. We are prepared to bring this all the way to the Supreme Court, and continue to present our case in the court of public opinion both national and global.

Did SM win the case? Henry Sy’s minions are celebrating this legal victory that won them the right to kill trees and destroy God’s creation for money. Is that something to celebrate?

If they eventually do get their way and remove the rest of the 182 trees on Luneta Hill, greatly reducing the water retention capacity and soil stabilization capability of the area, will the purported economic benefits of the expansion project be worth the risking of lives and properties when schools and other buildings directly below the expansion site now become the receiving end of excessive water run-off specially from typhoon and monsoon rains and potential landslides? Can you really consider that a victory?

And would you be able to live with yourself, if you were one who directly benefited from your participation in SM’s efforts to hide all of these immediate adverse effects on the city’s environment and potentially devastating consequences on the city’s residents? Would it be worth the gift certificates, nifty gadgets, fat checks in professional fees and other “representation expenses” in exchange for your praises for and defense of the injustice that is this unjustified concrete commercial and parking building? Would it be worth your honor, integrity and conscience?

We have managed to stand our ground for almost one year opposing SM’s insatiable hunger for money. Judge Estevez may have dismissed the case against SM, but in the meantime the remaining trees on Luneta Hill will remain standing, living, nurturing and protecting lives and the people of Baguio, in fact the whole country, nay, the whole world know of ordinary citizens’ valiant efforts to save God’s creation from man’s greed.

And that is how SM lost their case.

The fight for Baguio's 182 trees on deathrow and the struggle against corporate greed shall go on

"WHEREFORE, judgement is hereby rendered DISMISSING the Complaints dated February 23, 2012 and April 13, 2012 and the Amended Urgent Petition to Cite Defendant for Contempt dated April 20, 2012." - ANTONIO M. ESTEVEZ, Presiding Judge

In a decision dated December 3, 2012, the court ruled against the complaint filed by more than a hundred residents of Baguio in their effort to save 182 trees on Luneta Hill, condemned to almost certain death for being in the way of SM City Baguio's expansion project.

The mall, already the biggest commercial center in the city and the region, wants to add another 4-storey commercial building together with a 5-storey parking structure on Luneta Hill. On January 20, 2012, the city saw the biggest protest rally in recent memory when around 5,000 residents marched down Session Road to oppose the expansion plan.

A case was filed against SM, together with DENR and DPWH, on February 23, 2012. The complainants in the case filed before Branch 5 of the Regional Trial Court cited irregularities in the issuance of the various permits issued to SM for the expansion as well as the various  adverse effects the proposed project posed on the city's environment and the welfare of its citizens.

While we in the Save 182 movement respect the decision handed down by the honorable court, we strongly  disagree with the same and vow to exhaust all other legal remedies available to us in our struggle to stand up and speak for the trees on Luneta Hill, which stand defenseless against a corporate entity's apparent insatiable hunger for more money.

We maintain that the removal of the trees on Luneta Hill will endanger the health and indeed the lives of countless residents of Baguio City, particularly the students in the schools located in the immediate vicinity of the expansion site.

We stand by our conviction that an artificial "sky garden" that SM intends to place on top of their proposed concrete building can never come close to duplicating the beneficial effects of the 182 mature pine and alnus trees which they intend to remove.

We strongly disagree with the honorable court's pronouncement, citing the testimony of SM's witness, Armando Palijon, who admitted in court that he had no direct experience with Benguet pine trees or any reforestation efforts in Baguio, that "the cutting or earthballing of the 182 trees within the vicinity of Luneta Hill, Baguio City will NOT cause irreparable injury to the environment of the constituents of the City of Baguio."

We stand by our conviction that the removal of the 182 trees on Luneta Hill along with incalculable amount of earth that will be removed to accommodate the concrete parking and commercial buildings as proposed by SM City Baguio will not only cause irreparable damage to the city's natural environment and the general welfare of its citzens, it will also forever mar the city's natural beauty and heritage - Luneta Hill being the site of the first structure that the city's founder fathers built in preparation for its transformation from a largely uninhabited pasture land to a fully-developed city in harmony with its natural environment.

We shall exhaust all legal and moral remedies available to us, and we are also prepared to bring our case all the way to the Supreme Court, as well as before other fora and  institutions, both national and international, to defend the trees on Luneta Hill, and with it our city, our home.

We will never give up and our struggle to save the live-giving and nurturing trees on Luneta Hill, along with our defense of Baguio's environment, heritage and dignity from corporate greed, shall go on.

/KM Altomonte, Save 182
        

Santiago, Change .org, Quiapo and a gig

The primary destination was The Fort Strip, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, where our group was invited to perform at a Thanksgiving Party. But as in most of our trips to Manila, while brief, we try to make it as worthwhile as possible. So instead of leaving just in time to make it to the 5:00PM call time at the Fort Strip, we left Baguio just before sunrise to first go to U.P. Diliman.

A couple of members in our group never had the opportunity to know Santiago Bose who passed away 10 years ago, so despite the tight schedule, we made sure to stop by the Vargas museum where an exhibit of the late artist’s selected works was ongoing. The artwork that welcomed us said “Welcome to Baguio.” We all felt right at home immediately. For the next hour, I watched my children and the rest of the members of Open Space experience the magic of Santiago, slowly going from one multimedia work, print, oil painting to another.

It was great to see an animated image of Santiago Bose again, on a television that played a loop of an interview he did with a news agency. I love the part where the interviewer asked Santiago about the significance of a particular number on one of his artworks, obviously expecting an elaborate one - the bad boy of Philippine art simply replied, “it’s the number of my house.”

With Change.org founder, Ben Rattray

From the exhibit, we went to meet Ben Rattray, founder of the petition website, Change.org. Both our schedules were tight – he had to catch his flight out of the country while we still needed to make a trip to Quiapo for a piece of equipment needed for that night’s performance. Despite the rush, the exchange was meaningful, encouraging. Change.org was the site where we published out petition for Sting to take his concert out of SM-MOA and to another venue. And by the time this article comes out, we would be already on our way to Araneta Coliseum where the concert has been moved to watch Sting’s Back to Bass concert.

After a brief stopover at Quiapo, we made our way to the Fort Strip. We were invited to perform at a Thanksgiving Party by the owner of the Cheese Steak Shop with whom we shared a common advocacy – the fight against corporate greed.

And for three hours on Friday night, December 7, 2012, surrounded by among Metro Manila’s busiest watering holes, the group sang Baguio’s songs – and at one point, for a few minutes, newly found friends, guests and even passers-by stopped and listened as the sound of gongs filled the air and we sang, with all our heart, “Kami’y nananalangin, Kabunyan kami’y dinggin… kalikasan ay i-adya sa lahat ng masama.”

My heroes

In Naik, Cavite, one Andres Bonifacio, once the Supremo of the Katipunan, along with his brother Procopio, were found guilty of sedition. Sedition against what? Against Emilio Aguinaldo's revolutionary government, an offshoot of the Katipunan. That revolutionary government was legitimized in a questionable election which Bonifacio refused to recognize.  

At the Greenhouse Effect Gallery in Baguio City in the middle of 2002, one Santiago Bose, then the current chair of the board of the Baguio Arts Guild, and who was also then the only one from among the original founders who kept the flame burning for the guild, was being eased out of the organization. No, "eased out" would be too kind. He was being thrown out. In that hastily called meeting that afternoon, Bose thought he was going to be given a chance to justify his decision to replace the current president whom he believed hasn't been performing well. Fresh from a major surgery just days before, he sat in the middle of the room to read a prepared statement. In attendance were the above-mentioned president, old members who have previously all but totally given up on the guild but who were now suddenly "concerned" about its affairs and new faces who had no idea about the guild's history.

As Bose struggled to speak, his voice was immediately drowned out by the mob - in just a couple of minutes they managed to prevent him from speaking, abolish the current board of directors and call for the election of an interim board. "I quit," Bose simply said. He stood up from the chair and stepped aside.

The nominations for the new board weren't surprising at all - mostly the same people who earlier spoke against and prevented Bose from saying his piece. It was time to go, so I followed Bose out of the room. Remembering the bag I left inside, I went back in just in time to hear someone saying, "akala ko hindi bibigay e."

An arts festival was held later that year. In the morning of the last day of that festival, Bose was rushed to the hospital. As the organizers racked their brains that day to come up with a way to end the festival, a tiny detail that  their creative minds failed to include in their schedule of activities, Bose fought for his life in a hospital bed.

On May 10, 1897, the brothers Andres and Procopio, their hands tied and blindfolded, were led to a clearing in the mountains of Maragondon. One of the soldiers guarding them then unfolded a piece of paper which he was ordered not to read until they got to their destination. After reading the contents, he obeyed the orders written on it, and the brothers were executed and then buried in an unmarked  grave.

At around three in the afternoon, December 3, 2002, Bose quit for good, and was pronounced dead. And that year's Baguio Arts Festival came to an end, and, I believe, so did the Baguio Arts Guild.

More than a century ago, in 1897, he sat on a chair reserved for the accused. Or was should we say the condemned? He was surrounded by people whom, not so long ago, he inspired, motivated and led in the struggle to free our country from more than three centuries of slavery.


Just a decade ago, another man sat on a such a chair in the middle of a room in Baguio. Or should we say the condemned? He too, was surrounded by people whom, not so long ago, he inspired, motivated, nurtured and led in a struggle to free themselves from a lifetime of mental slavery.



November 30, 2012 is the 149th birth anniversary of Andres Bonifacio, while December 3, 2012 is Santiago Bose's death's 10th. They're two of my life's heroes.  

A revolution is in order

Because it seemed like it was business as usual inside the GI-sheet protective walls of the newly constructed building on Session Road, I asked, "Whatever happened to the council investigation on the building at the corner of Mabini Street and Session Road that violated the city's zoning ordinance?"

A lawyer commented, "That building and all the businesses in it will yield hundreds of jobs, generate income for many families. Removing (the) structure or stopping construction will have unintended negative consequences."

The comment sounded eerily like SM City Baguio's apologists' justification of the intended mass murder of trees on Luneta Hill - the expansion project will result in jobs and economic benefits, so to hell with the 182 trees that form part of the very few remaining forest covers in the heart of the city. The point of view that the comment forwarded not only broke my heart, it scared me a lot.

The end justifies the means, is what they're telling us. Never mind that laws were violated, both legal and moral, as long as we reap the supposed benefits. Or at least some of us will. And we wonder why Baguio turned out the way it did in the last two decades: from a quaint resort town to a concrete jungle; nature's paradise to a poster child for urban decay; a nurturing mother to a greedy, money-hungry prostitute.

Should we turn our backs on the lives of 182 life-nurturing trees, the city's dignity and heritage and the welfare of the thousands of people on foot because we want several hundred extra parking slots in the Central Business District? Should the comfort of the privileged few always trump the welfare of the poorer greater majority?

Shouldn't we mind the dangers posed by a tall building in an earthquake-prone and geologically unstable land on thousands of residents, including the ones whom the lawyer claims would be the direct beneficiaries of the business that the building will create, because of the economic benefits that it may bring? Does it really all boil down to money? Should it?

Is that the reason city hall can easily deprive hundreds of residents free access to a skating rink for a few pieces of silver that a bumper car arena, an arcade that teaches children the basic principles of gambling and skates for rent can bring? Is that the reason why our leaders want to close the doors of the Athletic Bowl to the student with worn-down shoes so the ones with Ipods on their arms that measures the distance they've covered and can afford to pay whatever the private developers deem justified can complement their health-club routine with a workout under the sun?

The end doesn't always justify the means, and you don't need a law degree to realize that.

If a capitalist, with all his money, can spit on the laws of our city, corrupt our political system and social institutions to make even more money for himself and a few others at the expense of rights and welfare of the masses, and a lawyer who took an oath to defend the constitution of this country and the laws of the land defends it, then with a clenched fist and in all seriousness, I say a revolution is in order.

Who's misinforming who?

Save 182 petitioned Sting to boycott SM and move his upcoming concert in Manila to a different venue by bringing SM City Baguio's expansion project that threatens 182 trees on Luneta Hill. The world-renowned musician and environmentalist eventually moved his concert out of SM-MOA and to Smart-Araneta Coliseum.

Immediately, SM went on a PR blitz, claiming that the movement misinformed Sting about the Luneta Hill issue. And while most international media outfits reported the news about Sting's support of the protest movement, local media outfits focused on SM's allegation of misinformation.

“For the record, SM Baguio City plans to redevelop its facilities in order to address an urgent topsoil erosion problem covering its private property to protect the integrity of its Baguio mall,” SMPH was quoted by a news report in response to Sting's decision.

This, while their own witness has testified in court that the alleged top soil erosion problem on Luneta Hill has no effect whatsoever on their mall in Baguio.

So, who's misinforming who?

SM's statement also reportedly said that, “In the process of the planned rip-rapping of the sloping area at the back of the mall, 182 trees will be scientifically earth-balled under close supervision by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and UP Los Baños forestry experts.”

Oxford Dictionaries define rip-rapping as "loose stone used to form a foundation for a breakwater or other structure." Can a building complex with a 4-storey and a 5-storey structure be considered rip-rapping? No, they are not rip-rapping, they are carving out that side of Luneta Hill for their expansion project.

Pray tell, who's misinforming who?

Earlier this year, they claimed over and over again that their expansion plan is LEED-certified. They have since changed their tune now claiming that it is actually merely LEED-registered, after a member of the Save 182 movement received a letter from the US Green Building Council stating that while SM has applied for it, the US-based organization has not issued a certification.

No, really, who's misinforming who?

On the night of April 10, they continued the removal of trees they started the previous night, claiming that they have yet to receive the TEPO issued by the court earlier that day. The truth is, they refused to receive the court's order here in Baguio, claiming that it should be served to their lawyers in Manila. This despite the fact that other official communications regarding their project from other government agencies were received here in Baguio, except the TEPO.

Come on, who's misinforming who?

“The issue on the relocation of the trees within the privately owned SM Baguio property, is pending before a Baguio court, and SM is focused on defending its legal rights,” SM further said.

And so are we - determined to defend our city from corporate greed. It's our moral obligation and right to do so.

Sacrifice

You stare at the board and analyze the situation - if only you can get that bishop in position. You realize that there's a way, but you will have to sacrifice a precious rook. You think about it longer before finally making your move.

One definition of sacrifice, according to Merriam-Webster, is "destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else." One thing for another. Benigno Aquino risked his life, and lost it, so did Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, Macli'ing Dulag, Gomez, Burgos and Zamora, and others. Around two thousand years ago, a man was crucified.

And the world, despite all that is wrong in it now, is a better one than the day before each one of them breathed their last on that tarmac, in Bagumbayan or up in the mountains of Cavite or the Cordilleras or on a cross in Golgotha.

We all are faced with the same opportunity to make sacrifices to make this world, our country, our community, our home, a better place. And it doesn't always mean laying down one's life - it could be as simple as sacrificing a few seconds to let a pedestrian cross the road safely and without fear, or a few extra steps up the road to get to the garbage can.

I believe that Baguio needs, and is ready, for a paradigm shift. It needs to change the path it has been forced to take in the last two decades - the path that leads to environmental destruction, and from there, to urban decay. And from there, the end of Baguio as a fully developed city in harmony with its natural environment.

And there are people who can make that change. But sadly, the same people who can make that change are the very same people who can prevent the dream of a better Baguio from being realized. 

A lot of people have asked us, why only Luneta Hill? Why are you singling out SM City Baguio expansion issue when there are so many others that effect our city today? Why they don't realize is that the Save 182 movement came to be because of the trees on Luneta Hill. Individually, we have different views, persuasions, aspirations - but in those 182 trees we found a common ground, a common cause. That common cause is what bound us together, what caused us to set aside whatever differences we have and unite to do what we can to save the trees on Luneta Hill, and along with it our city's welfare, heritage and dignity. and that's why we're still here.

In the case of two persons whom I believe can make that change in the city, I am hoping that they can find it in their hearts to set aside what separates them and focus on what unites them. Apart, their supporters will continue to hurl mud against each other, all that mud in fact directed at both of them, weakening both their chances. Apart, they will each cause their individual campaigns to fail, and their failure may be the failure of Baguio to rise up from the ravages of the last two decades.

They each believed in each other at one point, otherwise they wouldn't have joined forces not so long ago. Each one of them knew deep in their hearts what was good for Baguio, and that it's them who can deliver that good.

They may keep the status quo and give reason for the vision for a better Baguio slowly fade away with each slander, lie, criticism, etc. hurled by their respective camps at each the other. Keep a divide between those two supporters, and they both lose, and Baguio loses with them. But together, united by a common cause, they can lead Baguio on its way to recovery come June 30, 2013. 

They don't need to stand beside each other and raise each other's hands in an awkward photo-op. They don't need to become friends again. In fact, they can remain enemies - but enemies with decency, honor and respect for each other... and for themselves.

What really is the sacrifice needed here to give hope to this once beautiful city that's been ravaged by greed and a corrupt political system? Nothing much... nobody needs to face a firing squad nor be nailed to a cross. Just ego - the destruction or surrender of it for the sake of Baguio.  

At the end of the day, what's a rook when in the end it results in a check mate and you win the game?

We'll be watching

Photo by Leon Karlos Altomonte

Getting the permit for the event wasn’t a walk in the park, it was as if nobody in City Hall wanted to have any part with it. “I’ll Be Watching You,” as we decided to call the event, borrowing from a line from one of Sting’s more famous songs, was going to be a concert of sorts that would celebrate Baguio’s natural beauty and environment. But with the current environmental issue involving the city’s biggest commercial center, Luneta Hill and the 182 trees there (now down to 133), we knew that we couldn’t keep the concert from taking on the character of a protest action, so we decided to mention in our request for a permit to hold the event at the Igorot Park that it was gong to be a rally.

As with all our previous rally permits, we went to the City Administrator’s office. After being informed that the “rally” will be stationary, the office informed us that there’s no need for a “rally permit” and we were directed to request for permission for the use of the park directly from the City Environment and Parks Management Office (CEPMO). There we were told to go to their Burnham Park office, where we were told to go back to CEPMO. We drafted a new letter addressed to the head of CEPMO detailing our predicament. When we went back to follow up on our request a few days later, we were told that we should have applied for a permit with the City Administrator’s office. With only a couple of days before the event, we were back to square one.

Photo by Leon Karlos Altomonte

Photo by Leon Karlos Altomonte

But thanks to the accommodating personnel at the CEPMO and the Office of the City Mayor, we did eventually get our permit, and at noon of November 1, 2012, we hauled our musical instruments and sound equipment to the Igorot Park and started setting up for the concert scheduled at 4:00pm.

We knew that people would be asking what the concert was all about, so we prepared flyers to be handed out. In a couple of weeks, after marathon hearings that started in July and ended last October 5, the court will decide whether an expansion project that will cause the removal of decades-old trees on a hill should be allowed or not. The case was filed by concerned citizens and organizations with the sole intention of saving the lives of 182 trees which have been condemned for being in the way of a parking building and commercial center.

Chris Donaal, lead counsel in the environmental case filed against SM City Baguio, performes with his band, Daluyon - Photo by Leon Karlos Altomonte

There weren’t thousands of people this time. No protest slogans. No confrontations with a phalanx of policemen protecting a monument to crass commercialism. That afternoon, there were songs and poetry for and in behalf of those trees which cannot defend themselves from one artificial person’s desire for more money. And with international artist, Sting, supporting our cause, and the proud Igorot warriors standing tall behind us, we know we are not alone in this struggle.

Photo by Leon Karlos Altomonte

The concert ended as peacefully as it started. It was a wonderful experience, and we’d like to do it again, and again… and again.

A matter of principle

For a while, I did flirt with the idea of running for an elective position. After seeing the way the council sweep the issue of SM City Baguio's expansion under the rug, Baguio's natural environment, heritage and dignity need a genuine representative in our local government.

I envisioned a campaign that was to be run strictly according to the law and Comelec rules and regulations. Very strictly. Campaign expenditures will be within the limits that the law dictates, no posters or streamers will go a fraction of an inch beyond the allowed sizes. There will be no television or radio ads at all for with the prohibitive cost of airing an ad on mainstream media, either a candidate will end up using up his campaign spending limit and have nothing left for other campaign expenses, or they will be forced to doctor their expense reports and submit false statements to the Commission on Elections.

Friends and family thought it was a good idea – to run a clean campaign, but most of them agreed that it also almost guarantees a loss. See, the norm when it comes to elections is to go around the law to ensure a win. And it’s not just about overspending and oversized posters and streamers - it’s also about directly bribing voters, handing out envelopes with money to community leaders. The list goes on.

Yet, I was adamant – if running a clean campaign would result in a loss, then let it be. I’d rather do right and lose than do wrong and win a seat I didn’t deserve. It’s a matter of principle.

But, at the end of the day, I backed out. Primarily because the struggle that was started early this year to save the trees on Luneta Hill from corporate greed isn’t over yet. If I filed my certificate of candidacy, I wouldn’t be able to help continue advocating this cause anymore.

So now, as a voter, that would be at the top of my criteria for candidates in the coming election: principles. If you don’t have it, then that’s one less vote from me for you. If you’re the candidate who will commit a single, no matter how minor, infraction during your campaign; or one who easily switched political parties to advance your own selfish interest at the expense of what it was you stood for in the past; or one who brandished a gun in public to intimidate a helpless citizen; or one who bullies others because of your belief that you’re above everyone else being a politician; or one who never stood for anything in the past and is only running now for power – you don’t have my vote.

If not one candidate can live up to that primary criterion, then so be it: I shall abstain. Baguio's at a point of no return now, we need no less than genuine public servants. We definitely do not need another term with trapos, traditional politicians, including those those novices who are clearly showing signs of being trapos in the making this early.

Taking from Padre Florentino’s speech in the last chapter of El Filibusterismo, Malou Jacob wrote at the end of her play, “Pepe”: “Malinis at walang bahid-dungis ang kailangang maging buhay na alay upang ang handog ay maging karapat-dapat.”

You lose some, you win some

Now SM is claiming that Sting was fed with “disinformation,” according to various reports in several national dailies. For those who missed last week’s shocker, internationally renowned musical artist and environmental activist, Sting, upon learning of Save 182’s struggle to save the trees on Luneta Hill that are on deathrow for being in the way of SM City Baguio’s expansion plan, decided to join the boycott and moved his concert from SM-MOA to Araneta Coliseum.

First, let us not forget that what the movement did is no different to what SM has been doing, with their unlimited resources, ever since they thought of defacing Luneta Hill for more money: engage in relentless public relations efforts to make the backhoe-ing of trees for a parking and commercial building acceptable to the public. No doubt they’ve managed to convince a lot of people including  journalists and columnists, both local and national, judging from the number of news reports and articles that have come out praising SM to high heavens for having the “heart” to kill the 182 trees slowly via earthballing instead of giving them swift death by simply cutting them. Save 182 cannot match their PR war-chest, so the movement takes advantage of whatever mass communication means available to them – in this case, the internet.

After the online petition was created, Atty. Cheryl Daytec-Yangot wrote directly to Sting’s agents to bring the cause to the artist’s attention – and get Sting’s attention, Yangot did. According to SM-MOA’s representative, the decision to get the concert out of SM-MOA was made by the artist himself. The thing is, we wouldn’t even have known that if not for that statement. So for that, thank you, SM.

Secondly – come on, do you really believe that Sting will make that kind of decision without verifying the facts for himself? This guy, together with his wife, founded the Rainforest Foundation, and not as a mere “Corporate Social Responsibility” charade, but to help fight for communities around the world whose “livelihoods and cultures depend on their natural environment.” You really believe that Sting based his decision solely on the letter that was sent to him? You’ve got to give the guy a bit more credit than that.

But that’s SM’s PR machine at work, no surprise there. And here is where the internet, particularly social networking sites such as Facebook, becomes almost an even playing field. While Save 182 can’t afford expensive professional spinmeisters like the ones working for SM, the movement can take advantage of free public wi-fi connections (yes, including SM City Baguio’s) to air its advocacy on the World Wide Web. While there’s no doubt that through their PR efforts, SM has been able to get the support of most government institutions and officials, most of them defending the expansion project not just in the media but even in court, Save 182 got Sting.

You win some, you lose some.

As for Save 182, we are very thankful and honored that someone like Sting, known worldwide not only for his music but also for his environmental advocacy, supports the protest against the removal of trees on Luneta Hill for SM City Baguio's expansion plan.