AT SM Baguio, security guards don’t just inspect bags of people entering the mall as part of their daily routine.Nowadays, they also take pictures of protesters rallying against the mall’s plan to remove more than 100 trees in Luneta Hill to pave the way for the construction of a parking lot and entertainment plaza.
“Sige lang! Kunan nyo lang kami at ipakita nyo sa mga boss nyo na marami rito! (Go! Just take pictures of us and show your boss that we are many here!)” Fortunato Galang, a protester from the University of the Philippines-Baguio (UPB) shouted while security guards were taking their pictures at the picket in front of the main entrance of SM Baguio on April 13.
One of the security guards of SM Baguio explained that taking pictures of the rallys its for record purposes was part of their job.
“May karapatan kaming gampanan ang tungkulin namin; may karapatan din silang gampanan ang tungkulin nila (We have the right to do our job; they also have the right to do theirs),” another security guard of SM Baguio added.
Dr. Michael Bengwayan of Pine Tree Cordillera Ecological Center said that the pictures of the the rallyists were posted at the headquarters of the security guards of SM Baguio. Bengwayan initiated the online petition opposing the decision of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to grant SM Development Corporation a permit to cut, ball, and prune trees.
Aside from having his pictures taken by SM guards, Bengwayan revealed that he has also received an envelope containing a black ribbon signifying death with the message saying “palitan mo na lang ‘yong green ribbon mo (just change your green ribbon).”
Karlo Marko Altomonte, an artist and a member of Project Save 182, also said that the pictures of the protesters were saved in the database of SM security guards’ headquarters. He found out about this when his artist friends who were set to perform at SM were asked to submit their pictures first before performing.
“Later on, they were told ‘Sorry you can’t perform’,” Altomonte said. “Basically, the reason was one of them was seen in the database as one of the those rallying against SM.”
Students from some universities in the summer capital like UP-B and Saint Louis University are actively participating in the protest rallies against the mall’s expansion plan as well as buying from commercial establishments in Baguio other than SM.
Commenting on the walls built by SM around its veranda, Dr. Bengwayan said: “They don’t want the public to see what they’re doing because they promise that they will not cut and now, they’re cutting.”
An ocular inspection requested by the opposition showed that some trees were already earth-balled (or transplanted) but some were not yet transferred. Only 13 trees have been transferred from its original place to an area within the SM Baguio property.
Dr. Bengwayan said that SM workers were not properly earth-balling the trees because they cut only about two or three feet away from the plants, thereby cutting the life system of the trees.
“Kung nakita nyo sana yung isa pang (punong) inangat nilang ganun, walang lupang naiwan (If you only saw the other tree they pulled up, no soil was left),” he said.
Backhoes were also seen inside the SM Baguio property which has 182 trees. According to Dr. Bengwayan, backhoe is dangerous to the trees if it is used in earth-balling. Altomonte said using a backhoe is the easiest way to transfer the trees.
Despite the existence of an indefinite temporary environmental protection order (TEPO), SM requested to transfer the cut trees but the opposition wanted to put back the soil around the trees for them to survive.
In a public relations bid, SM City Baguio welcomed critics and government authorities to its expansion site to show that it is not trying to conceal from the public its expansion project that requires earth-balling trees in the area.
SM said the earth-balling procedure was done during the night as advised by DENR foresters “to capitalize on the soil moisture to ensure that earth-balled trees would live after they had been relocated.”
SM Baguio posted in their website they will replace the trees that they will transfer. A pine tree nursery has already been built by SM near the entrance of the mall.
It added that they have nurtured 1,130 trees within their property although 10 years ago, they cut hundreds of trees in Luneta Hill in order to build SM Baguio. Many people of Baguio were then already against the plan of having an SM mall in the city because it would kill local businesses.
In Metro Manila, environmental activists staged a flash mob rally at Megamall in Mandaluyong to support Baguio City residents protesting the cutting of 182 pine trees to give way to a parking lot.
(The author is a journalism student of the University of the Philippines-Baguio who is writing for VERA Files as part of her internship.)
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