Baquirin: The stand of trees

Friday, January 13, 2012

I WAS born in Baguio in 1972. Many will agree with me that Baguio was idyllic those bygone days. I remember picking wild berries by the side of M. Roxas street. What would usually take 5 minutes for a trip to the sari-sari store, took me 10 minutes because I would be delayed because I just had to pick wild flowers and wild berries along the way. I remember that at 5 years old, my mom could put me in a jeep, pay my fare, ask for the driver to stop at UCCP so I could safely get to school on my own. The jeepney driver would stop at UCCP and help me cross the street and be on his way. Sometimes when my “sundo” would be late, I would sit facing Burnham and watch CAT (Citizen’s Army Training) trainees do drills in the park, crawling like worms across the field. I remember going to stage plays in Brent, concerts at the Convention Center and film showings in UP Baguio. As a child, I thought that there was so much to do in Baguio. It was exciting growing up in a place where I could go to the backyard and pretend that I was in the jungle. There were honest-to-goodness passion fruit vines thick as my arm that one could climb and swing from and I would pretend to be Jane. Sometimes I would pretend to be Tarzan too when I wanted to jump from a high place or if I wanted to swing to another vine. When I became hungry I would just pick a masaplora and I would be good to go. I remember tagging along with my aunt and uncle to go to meditate in the woods of Brent school where they would pick a spot and they would sit and meditate. I was taught to do the same. For a then five year old like me, sitting still for more than 5 minutes was an ordeal. But surrounded by trees in the gathering mist of twilight, one could just lay on the ground to look up at the sky through the pine needles and watch the light fade. A little bit over two years ago I lay on the grass and looked at the sky through the pine needles, like I used to when I was a kid. It gave me such a feeling of bliss, to feel the ground beneath me, connected to what was there before me. Over the years I have found myself going to other places, mainly Manila to work. I am asked where I am from quite often. I always proudly say that I am a daughter of Baguio. I was born here and I will be buried here.

I hear that 97 pine trees and 42 saplings are to be uprooted, 43 alnos trees are to be cut down just so SM Development Corp (SMDC) can build another parking lot. Before I get really carried away, because this issue really is making my blood boil, I want to ask a question first. What exactly is the purpose of having a department dedicated to the environment and natural resources? Whose interest are they supposed to be serving? Whose welfare should they be looking after? I am just sooooo confused about whose side they are supposed to be on! The permit to cut, ball and prune the trees were given by them. Whose interests are served by building another parking lot? Car owners of Baguio? Did you ask the car owners of Baguio if they wanted to park in a parking lot that cost the very existence of those trees that have been there before SM came into being? I am quite sure that if you asked people in Baguio what they would prefer, a parking lot or a stand of trees, I’m pretty sure they would choose the trees! I mean, come on! what kind of small-minded, greedy betrayal is this DENR? Yes, I’m talking to you people responsible for handing out permits to desecrate, nay, raping Mother Nature? No one in that department took a stand against this permit? What, no thought of what kind of world your children will have? No thought about what kind of air you breath? No thought about what is the common good? Since when was raping our land and building a parking lot common good? I have no answers, only questions and I will part with this one, what now?

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“Greed, envy, sloth, pride and gluttony: these are not vices anymore. No, these are marketing tools. Lust is our way of life. Envy is just a nudge towards another sale. Even in our relationships we consume each other, each of us looking for what we can get out of the other. Our appetites are often satisfied at the expense of those around us. In a dog-eat-dog world we lose part of our humanity.” Jon Foreman (Switchfoot)

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