The Philippine Online Chronicles

A call to boycott SM Baguio was made by environment activists, students, Baguio City residents, and even supporters from Manila as they rallied along Upper Session Road to stop the cutting of trees for the SM Baguio Extension Project yesterday.

Earlier, an online petition enumerating the number of issues the group vehemently opposed was created. It includes the granting of permit by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to SMDC for the cutting, balling, and pruning of trees upon the instruction of a clearance signed by DENR Sec. Ramon Paje on Oct., 2011.   SMDC is set to cut 43 fully grown Alnus japonica trees, uproot 97 growing pine trees (Pinus kesiya), and 42 saplings to a total of 182 trees within the Luneta Hill area. The said area is claimed to be used for parking lot as SM Development Corp (SMDC) extends.

The call reached a number of Netizens asking them to share and link to their sites the call to stop the cutting of trees in Baguio City. On the other hand, SM Baguio, in its Official Facebook page, wrote in one of its comments in the many threads discussing the issue that:  “we will not be cutting trees for our redevelopment, we are going to ball out the trees carefully and have utilized recommended specialists for this activity who will replant them in designated areas within the SM property. In addition, rather than merely complying with the stipulation that we plant 20 saplings for every tree balled out, we decided to go beyond this requirement and have increased this to 50 saplings for every tree we will transfer.’’

SM Baguio City’s website also issued a statement last January 17, 2012 containing an explanation about their redevelopment plans including their search for permanent solutions to the enhancement of the area as they experienced soil erosions in 2005 and 2010.

The boycott call coincided with the concert of ABS-CBN artist, Sam Milby. A number of fans chose to stay outside as a declaration of their disapproval of the plans set forth by SMDC.