CHILDREN from the Baguio Pines Family Learning Center (BPFLC) have asked President Rodrigo Duterte to save the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) Tree Park.
Pupils from the local school went to the office of Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan with letters to the President asking to keep the patch of forest at the town center.
A sixth grader read her letter to Duterte for the chief executive “in the hopes of receiving your help regarding the preservation of our only remaining forest reserve located at Baguio’s Central Business District. Recently, there have been plans to destroy the Tree Park to place new buildings.”
“I believe that saving the forest would mean a brighter future for Baguio, I have faith that it would just not be the first step for a better Baguio, it will also be the first step for a better Philippines,” Dominique Flores said.
Domogan said efforts to acquire the GSIS Tree Park have been done but to no avail.
The tree park is beside the Baguio Convention Center which was acquired from the GSIS through the city’s accumulated share from the lease of the 247-hectare John Hay Special Economic Zone (JHSEZ) held by the state owned Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) in the amount of P250 million in 2012.
In the past, Domogan sent a letter to GSIS expressing its intent to buy the lot beside the Baguio Convention Center.
Originally, negotiations started when GSIS informed the city on 2017 the area was up for sale for P433 million which the city in turn, bargained for P350 million.
However, instead of lowering the price, the GSIS upped the tag for the lot to P670 million, which the city cannot afford to purchase.
Clamor to preserve the area was rekindled when the University of the Philippines (UP) Baguio College of Social Sciences presented two studies showing the current state of the 1.4-hectare tree park.
Over fifty pupils trooped to City Hall Monday afternoon, January 28, accompanied by their school principal Leonila Bayla.
Bayla, with faculty and staff of the school likewise wrote to Duterte to stop the sale of the park to SM Prime Holdings to give way to a condominium “Baguio Air Residences.”
“We strongly believe, that this prime forest should be preserved in order to avert the environmental degradation of the city, that this refreshing patch of green in the city’s urban landscape be spared from commercial purposes and that this pinestand be protected for the welfare of the Baguio community and for the Filipino nation as a whole,” Bayla added.
Studies from UP Baguio professor Zenaida Baoanan show the tree park is home to 544 pine trees and 21 Agoho trees, however, a reduction was noted from 800 pine trees in 2012.
Aside from pine trees, 49 plants were documented with 35 invertebrate species, majority are insects and 24 bird species spotted in the tree park.
The forest park act as microclimate mitigator, and trees trap carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere adding at least 559,719 kilograms of carbon dioxide can be trapped by the 544 pine trees within the park.
The study revealed more than 50 percent of trees are in bad state and infested with fungal infection as the area is being utilized as a bathroom and garbage dump. (With a report from Lauren Alimondo )