Prime recipients

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

By March Fianza

              Last month, the guy responsible in revealing to the public the killing of trees on Luneta Hill, around SM in Baguio, was presented by the Reader's Digest international magazine as its Environmental Hero of this year. Dr. Michael Bengwayan, environmentalist and organizer of several non-government environment groups, the latest of which is “One Tree A Day” was reported in the international magazine as the guy who discovered an alternative to LPG, brought to Baguio the evergreen Australian tree Macadamia and other plants that only grow in other countries. After being branded badly by public officials who are apparently on the side of SM, I now wonder what SM, its environmental “experts” and paid critics say about him. To Mike, I say more power.

********

As early as the 90s before SM investors planned on constructing their branch in the City of Pines, appointed and elected government officials from Malacanang down to the lowest appointee were already listed as the VIPs who will initially assist them start their project. These were the initial “beneficiaries.” I was told that there was however a few good advice from the agency officials that SM had to do and not to do within the Luneta Hill area. They were advised to pile-drive concrete posts into the ground as a sunken support for their proposed project, if they were to construct a building as high as seven storeys. The builders of the Maharlika building at the foot of Session Road drove in hundreds of concrete piles into the ground before the building stood. The same is true with the construction of the Skyworld Condominium along Session Road and other buildings in the city. My honest guess why this was not done on Luneta Hill was because the investors opted to construct a building with just a few storeys knowing that the return of investment for a seven or eight-storey building was impossible to recoup at that time. The second advice was for SM not to touch the existing appearance of the environment within Luneta Hill. These documented recommendations however can no longer be located in the offices of the DENR here. They are suspiciously missing. I was informed that all documents pertaining to SM were hauled to the DENR central office, on orders of the highest DENR official, of course. I also learned that the initial payment of SM for the lot they surreptitiously bided and eventually purchased was deposited, not in a government account but in a personal account of a DENR official, and was later withdrawn when DENR central office asked for it. 

The next “beneficiaries” on the line were elected officials. Every now and then since 1992 when I was managing another newspaper, the issue about the purchase of the former Pines Hotel lot came up in the city council. But for reasons known only to the councilors at that time, the discussions on the topic were shelved and later “forgotten.” By the way, the Luneta Hill lot purchase even led to the filing of a city council resolution declaring certain DENR regional officials as ‘persona non grata’ in the city. Last year, three DENR surveyors were also suspended on orders of DENR central office for not toeing its orders and for being honest in performing their sworn duties by following the right procedures in dealing with controversial lots such as the SM lot survey and purchase. Imagine, while some officials were laughing and going to the bank, some employees were being suspended and were left fighting alone. Then we were told about some public officials who, at that time, sought audience with mall developers and investors in Manila. And just a few years back, another councilor sought for the investigation of lots adjacent to Luneta Hill that were bought by SM. Again, this did not finish discussion in the city council. Such acts give us the suspicion that councilors have dual personalities and provide the public the ammunition to hit them. Inside the session hall, they are councilors but outside city hall, whether they are in Burnham Park or in a mall somewhere in Manila, they act as private individuals with private interests, of course.

The last but not the least “beneficiaries” from the construction of malls are the contractors. Distinguished lawyer and news columnist PablitoSanidad in his latest article said “how he wished that SM abandons its expansion plans, and as a gift to the people of Baguio and to its endangered environment, and that instead of balling and transferring the trees, it will build a world-class eco-tourism park equal to none, that it will create a new nature-oriented tourist attraction the city could be proud of, instead of erecting yet another addition to its profit gobbling network.” Oh, but that will be against the wishes of the building contractors who in fact are the ‘pinaka’ prime beneficiaries in the SM construction. But I heard that because of the fighting stance of Save 182 Movement and the group’s supporters from the church and the public, some investors and would-be SM locators are now hesitant about their plans to put their money in the proposed expansion. It has come out in news reports that SM’s expansion will cost about P1 billion. In case 30 per cent of that goes to construction profit, then that will be a whopping P300 million for the contractors and developers. Now before Henry Sy, his family and his co-investors profit from the finished building, tell me who are primarily pressing for SM’s expansion if not SM’s own building designers and contractors? In addition to appointed and elected government officials, aren’t they the prime beneficiaries? – marchfianza777@yahoo.com