Ifugao lawmaker Teodoro Baguilat opposes cutting and earth-balling of pine trees in Baguio City | Sun.Star.

By JM Agreda
February 7, 2012

IFUGAO Representative Teodoro Baguilat Jr. joined groups opposing the planned cutting and earth-balling of pines trees along the Luneta Hill in Baguio City to give way to the SM Baguio mall expansion.

Baguilat, chair of the House of Representatives national cultural communities committee, said the planned uprooting of some 182 alnus and pine trees is almost criminal.

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He stressed the removal of the pine trees should not be allowed as they help make Baguio City unique among the cities in the Philippines.

“It is ironic that Baguio is named the City of Pines and yet developers from outside the city and the Cordillera are now there to remove them and are being allowed to do so,” he said.

He urged local officials to reflect on what kind of development they really want. “Do they want a city with greenery and pine trees or a city of malls and blocks of concrete and steel?”

The lawmaker also expressed fear that allowing one developer to uproot so many trees will open the floodgates for other developers to do the same or at an even grander scale.

“If we allow SM to do this to the trees, sooner or later, other developers would follow. People should realize aside from the cool weather and the Cordillera culture, the pine trees also define Baguio. To lose them would mean losing Baguio’s identity,” he said in a statement.

Kabataan Party-list Representative Raymond Palatino recently filed House Resolution 2069, which directs the House committees on natural resources and ecology to conduct a joint inquiry, in aid of legislation, on the legality and propriety of the permit granted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) allowing the cutting and earth-balling of trees.

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