SM Baguio expansion sparks uproar
BAGUIO, Philippines (UPDATE) – Several environmental groups were alarmed by SM City Baguio's plan to cut and transfer 182 alnus and pine trees for its 7-storey parking building.
More than 3,000 signed the online petition against SM City Baguio.
This will be submitted to the office of President Benigno Aquino III and Secretary for Environmental Protection Neric Acosta.
Part of the protest is to boycott SM mall in the Philippines.
A rally will be conducted on January 20 at 2 p.m.
'Green' parking
SM, meanwhile, insists that the 7-storey parking building will be environment-friendly with its green architecture.
It has a sky garden at the rooftop, underground water reservoir to catch rainfall and sewerage treatment system to recycle used water.
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Ramon Paje and Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan had already granted permission to SM City Baguio to cut 182 trees.
On October 27, 2011, DENR-Cordillera issued a cutting and balling permit to SM.
On Thursday, Baguio City's building and architecture's office issued a building permit allowing SM to start the construction.
Baguio heritage
Acosta told ANC on Saturday that he wants to meet with all the parties involved in the tree-cutting operation to revisit the plan.
Acosta said the issue reflects largely on the city’s heritage of being the “summer capital of the Philippines.”
“All parties [must] revisit this entire situation because in many respects this points not just to the trees but Baguio’s heritage,” he said.
“I’d like a sit-down with the city government, the DENR regional office in Cordillera and SM,” he added.
Acosta said he was alarmed at the amount of feedback his office received regarding the tree-cutting and balling.
“As Environment Protection Secretary, it alarms me at the very least and I’d like to listen to the voices of the people of Baguio because it is their city,” he said.
The secretary also said that President Aquino’s Executive Order (EO) No. 23 should be brought up in the meeting.
The EO restricts DENR from issuing logging permits and contracts in all natural and residual forests nationwide. -- Reports from Maira Wallis, ABS-CBN News Northern Luzon; ANC
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Seeing both sides
There's a new statement from SM Baguio. Let's try to see what they have to say about this issue now. Maybe both parties can meet halfway's interest. Maybe we can try to be critical and contribute to both sides a solution that would benefit both. What do you think?
http://smsupermalls.com/smsupermalls/smbg/
Hoping that this issue will be resolved soon.
Cheers to us Pinoys!
Seeing both sides
There's a new statement from SM Baguio. Let's try to see what they have to say about this issue now. Maybe both parties can meet halfway's interest. Maybe we can try to be critical and contribute to both sides a solution that would benefit both. What do you think?
http://smsupermalls.com/smsupermalls/smbg/
Hoping that this issue will be resolved soon.
Cheers to us Pinoys!
Our World, Our Choice
Climate Change is getting worst everyday. Day in and Day out, people are doing harm to our environment. Sea levels are rising, glaciers are melting rapidly. When are we going to act????
Temperatures are rising, people and all living creatures will soon die.
Our World, Our Choice. Please save our trees.
There's a whole lot ways to beautify SM: Save lives, not faces
In creating or developing anything of great purpose, I think the very first thing that an individual or a group of person should take in to consideration is the “GENUINE” welfare of the mass. In cutting those 182 trees, did the SM Management look through the eyes of many or only through their “OWN” eyes instead? I am not judging their intentions per se. It is just that a human feels threatened by instinct if something really is threatening his life. Before saving faces, I think we should think of saving lives first. We’ve just lost hundreds of our kababayans when Sendong hit the country and the issue of illegal logging is one main factor that made the scenario a nightmare. Yes, their proposed project is legal but isn’t it that they are overpowering the voice of the mass in this situation? Why not ask the people who are the real owners of the lands which includes these trees? And aside from that, uprooting those trees and transferring them into wherever they want doesn’t assure that those trees will live. Yes, the development of SM Baguio will benefit the people in so many ways but, I don’t think it will defeat the benefit that the people will have when these trees will keep on living, giving us still the air we need and the safety that they are providing us for centuries.
These trees are the heritage of Baguio. They have given beauty not just to this mall but to Baguio as a whole more than they can imagine. There’s a whole lot more ways how to develop and beautify SM. It will not hurt to look around and save lives.