VERA Files’ special report about the fragile state of the University of the Philippines arboretum in Diliman, Quezon City, the lone urban forest in Metro Manila, was awarded Friday Outstanding Achievement in Online Journalism in the 9th Hildegarde Awards. The two-part report written by VERA Files contributors Antonio Jose Galauran and Luis Adrian Hidalgo was
By ANTONIO JOSE GALAURAN and LUIS ADRIAN HIDALGO (Conclusion) IN May 2013, a few months after the University of the Philippines-Diliman signed an agreement with the agriculture and environment departments and the UP Beta Sigma Fraternity to develop its 22-hectare arboretum into a National Botanical Garden, residents of Pook Arboretum barricaded a portion of Metro Manila’s
By ANTONIO JOSE GALAURAN and LUIS ADRIAN HIDALGO (First of two parts) IN the midst of the concrete jungle that Metro Manila has become, a forest continues to thrive. But the 22-hectare University of the Philippines Arboretum is in peril, owing to the inroads of urbanization and influx of informal settlers in the last five decades.
