What’s in a tree?

BEHIND THE SCENES
Alfred P. Dizon

BAGUIO CITY -- After 15 years of being an object of ridicule, the concrete pine tree atop Session Road here was finally was torn down last week, Mayor Reinaldo Bautista, Jr. did not even need a permit to cut from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for the job. The 15 year old pine tree’s demise was expected.

Workers tore down the needles, then armed with maces, they started tearing down the trunk while onlookers gawked. Bautista said it will be replaced with a marker that is better than anything found in the city. “It will be a structure by the people and a testimony that this administration is listening to the clamor of the people.”

Surprise, the replacement turned out to be “installation art” made of boulders. The monument, builders said, represented members of the Second Philippine Commission – a legislative body which declared Baguio the Summer Capital. The sessions of the body was how Session Road got its name.

Built in 1995 from funds (around P5 million) given by then Baguio Rep. Bernardo Vergara, the concrete pine tree (or rather concrete that imitated a pine tree) replaced the garden put up by King Louis Farm. It was the replacement of a pine tree sapling that replaced the fountain put up by former mayor Ramon Labo. The statues of cherubs at the fountain were often referred to as Labos (naked in the local dialect) angels or Labos boys.

“If that is what they want, then they can tear it down. I have no opposition to it,” said Vergara. “It has outlived its purpose, that of giving hope to the people of the city, still recovering from the devastations of the 1990 earthquake and with the city given up for good by economic experts. They could have done it earlier."

Local folk and visitors had been criticizing the concrete tree. Lately people aired their opposition to it through a popular social networking internet site. The removal was undertaken by the Baguio Commission, a group composed of young urban planners and professionals.

The group is expected to replace the Baguio Centennial Commission and will be tasked to “plan dreams” for the city. The tree’s replacement was a product of pooled talents, resources and community spirit that “surprised everybody,” the mayor said.

What will the next mayor of the city replace the marker with? It seems with every change of administration, markers or edifices are replaced at the loop. So after the May elections, don’t be surprised of the Bautista marker would become a garbage receptacle, a table with chairs for playing cards, a dap-ay (indigenous Igorot hut with a bonfire site), an internet hub for cornering international projects for rocket parts or a law office for indigents.

This depends of course on the next mayor.