A night with JHMC ladies /SM statement on tree-cutting

BEHIND THE SCENES
Alfred P. Dizon

BAGUIO CITY – Members of the media here one evening met Jamie Eloise Agbayani, new president and chief executive officer of John Hay Management Corporation and found out she was one friendly, pretty lady, much unlike her predecessor who now has to contend with the news-hungry media in Manila due to issues besetting her husband.

People were surprised when they were told she was the wife of former Pangasinan Gov. Agbayani.

It was during the occasion at The Chalet that I also espied lawyer Lyssa Pagano, longtime acquaintance, a beauty in her own right and former officer of the JHMC who said she was returning as consultant of the government-run corporation.

Lyssa, a former Bartopnotcher, said she had been working in Manila and returning to Baguio was always a “painful experience” nowadays, but I won’t tell you why. It looked like she didn’t age, but then, some people just have the genes.

The social niceties, I will talk about later in another column so more on the JHMC and the new president’s thoughts on the matter.

Ms Agbayani said part of her thrust would be to support and boost the city’s tourism and help in protection and preservation of the city’s remaining forest reserveslike Camp John Hay though various activities.

She earlier bared this during the Department of Tourism-Cordillera-led regional tourism conference here last week.

The JHMC is reportedly set to implement a Medium-Term Development Plan for Camp John Hay starting this 2012 whose primary objective is to help boost the city’s tourism by putting in more attractions inside the camp for both local and foreign visitors.

“We would like to bring more visitors including the city folks inside Camp John Hay,” Agbayani said.

First on the JHMC’s agenda is the rehabilitation of the camp’s historical core, which according to Agbayani, is the soul of Camp John Hay and one of the remaining original American architecture inside the camp.

“We are going to rehabilitate the core and we will put in activities such as arts festivals and concerts. I have already talked to the academe to help in bringing in the Cordillera culture, hoping to preserve such culture, not only by educating the tourists but the youth and the locals as well,” Agbayani added.

She also disclosed an agro-forestry project through a partnership with Canadian company, Rocky Mountain Arabica Coffee. “We are going to plant coffee on about 60 hectare area inside the camp, which somehow will also help in reforestation effort of the city.”

For other environmental projects, Agbayani said the JHMC is also pushing for renewable energy thus upgrading the mini-hydro inside the Camp John Hay reservation is in the works.

The mini-hydro which was built by the Americans is a 500kw power plant, but according to initial studies made by JHMC’s proponent, it can be upgraded to 3.8 Mwatts which could be shared to the city as the camp’s energy requirement is only about 1.5 Mwatts.

Agbayani also dismissed the issue that there is indiscriminate cutting of trees inside Camp John Hay. She said they have close coordination with the city government through Mayor Mauricio Domogan and Department of Environment and Natural Resources regionalexecutive director Clarence Baguio as far as monitoring and overseeing tree-cutting inside the camp is concerned.

Agbayani outlined the five-point development plan for JHMC to include IT Service Export Processing Zone; Medical Tourism Zone; Educational Tourism Zone; Sports and Recreation Centers; and Eco Cultural Tourism.
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In the interest of fair play, we are printing hereunder en toto a statement of SM management, courtesy of media relations officer Karren Padilla, on the controversial and planned “cutting” or “balling” of around 200 trees at their Baguio establishment:

In 2005 and 2010, we experienced soil erosion in our Baguio property. Seeking permanent solutions, we researched the problem and consulted many experts. The collective inputs we received revealed that a careful enhancement of the area, was the best way to address this concern for the long term. We started to draw up plans. To help ensure alignment with globally accepted standards for green development, we also decided to aim for possible LEED accreditation.

These redevelopment plans will not only take the environment into consideration. The project will also create new opportunities for employment, business and tourism in the city. These include:

1. A new parking facility that will provide alternatives to street parking and, hopefully, help decongest the streets around the facility;
2. A roof garden with trees and shrubs to cover the building footprint;
3. A rainwater collection system to help control water runoff in and around the property, while providing a secondary water source for the facility’s needs.

We then sought the approval of the city government and all government agencies and secured these permits over time. We have strictly followed the stipulations on the permits. We are not cutting trees. Rather, we are going to ball out some trees carefully and have utilized recommended specialists for this activity who will replant them in designated areas within the SM property.

In addition, rather than merely complying with the stipulation that we plant 20 saplings for every tree balled out, we decided to go beyond this requirement, and have increased this to 50 saplings for every tree we will transfer.

We are grateful that our transparency has been appreciated by local government units, as well as city environmentalists and religious organizations when we made our presentations.

As a responsible mall developer, we shall continue to inform the public of our plans to help safeguard and improve life in the city by supporting the need to plant more trees, promote improved engineering and safety standards, help in traffic and vehicle management, and make better use of Baguio’s abundant rainfall.

We thank you for your kind understanding and patience.