Court allows uprooting of 28 trees: Congress to probe Baguio SM project

BAGUIO CITY – Congress will start an investigation next month on the SM Development Corp. expansion project here which is being protested by residents and environmentalists since it includes the uprooting or “earthballing” of around  200 trees at Luneta Hill.

            Ifugaoi Rep. Teddy Baguilat bared this saying he might chair the inquiry even as he called on Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ramon Paje and Baguio City Mayor Maurice Domogan to listen to the people’s protests against the cutting or uprooting of trees at thew project site.

            This, as presiding Judge Antonio M. Esteves of the city’s Regional Trial Court Branch 5 ordered the immediate earth-balling of 28 trees within SM here where 42 alnus trees and one pine tree were “earth-balled” prior to the extension of the temporary environment protection order (TEPO).

            Baguilat, who chairs the National Cultural Communities committee and is vice chair of the House committee on Natural Resources, said that the removal of the pine trees should not be allowed as they help make Baguio City unique among the cities in the Philippines.

            “It is ironic that Baguio is named the City of Pines and yet developers from outside the city and the Cordillera are now there to remove them and are being allowed to do so,” said Baguilat, “It is almost criminal.”

            Baguilat had expressed fear that allowing one developer to uproot so many trees will open the floodgates for other developers to do the same or at an even grander scale.

            “If we allow SM to do this to 168 trees, sooner or later, other developers would follow.People should realize that aside from the cool weather and the Cordillera culture, the pine trees also define Baguio. To lose them would mean losing Baguio’s identity,” he said.

            Baguilat said he was also throwing his support behind Kabataan party list representative Raymond Palatino, who has called for the investigation of the expansion of the SM mall in Baguio City and also expressed his firm opposition to the cutting or uprooting of the trees in Luneta Hill.

            Palatino recently filed House Resolution 2069, directing the House Committee on Natural Resources and Committee on Ecology to conduct a joint inquiry, in aid of legislation, on the legality and propriety of the permit granted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) allowing the cutting and earth-balling of trees.

            The resolution also directs the DENR to immediately suspend the clearance and permit granted to SM Development Corp. which operates the SM mall in Baguio City.

            Baguiilat said SMDC intends to cut 43 fully grown Alnusjaponica trees and uproot 97 growing pine trees with the approval of the permit last Oct 27. signed by Environment Secretary Ramon Paje on Oct. 17.

            Meanwhile, judge Esteves’s April 16 order for the immediate earth-balling of 28 trees, came after a multi-sectoral inspection within the SM area where there were 43 trees that were initially earth-balled to validate conflicting reports whether or not SM complied with the required earth-balling of the trees.

            “The Department of Environment and Natural Resources is hereby directed to immediately supervise the re-planting of the trees that have undergone initial earth-balling procedures at the Luneta Hill,” Esteves stated in his order, adding that both SMIC and DENR are mandated to tender a written report to the court as to the actions taken in order to allow the trees to survive within 24 hours upon the receipt of the order.

            Engineer Bien Mateo, SMIC vice president for mall operations, said the conduct of the multi-sectoral ocular inspection was successful since the mall management was able to prove their critics that what they have undergone was earth-balling and not tree cutting as earlier being alleged by the Save 182 Movement.

            “We were able to prove to them our sincerity and transparency in the conduct of our mall expansion project. We hope that we were able to open our doors for further talks on how to address their concerns through the help of concerned government agencies,” Mateo told the Manila Standard, adding that their P1 billion mall expansion project will help address the soil erosion problem that the mall had experienced since 2005.

            Mateo said SMIC will continue to comply with the conditions prescribed in their permits on how to go about their mall expansion activities and the succeeding court orders relative to the pending case filed against its expansion project to show their commitment and compliance to lawful orders.

            When asked on what is the survival rate of the over 6,000 assorted tree seedlings that they were able to plant over the past several years in different places around the city, Mateo disclosed that they have a 60 percent survival rate but they are obliged to replace the ones which already died while committing to plant 50,000 more trees in the next two years in Baguio and Benguet with the initial 20,000 trees to be planted in strategic watersheds this year.

            He said SMIC will await the decision of Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo on when to conduct the succeeding dialogues in order to thresh out the solutions to the issues being raised against their mall development project.