G Spot
The smell of green
By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo
GMA News reported on August 3, that “As many as 31 trees, some decades old, at the landmark Manila Army and Navy Club are being felled in a restoration project, angering heritage advocates and environmentalists who are asking why increasingly rare shady trees in the city need to be cut down for the project.”
This is alarming as there are so many other trees being felled all over the country in the name of development, but it remains unclear for whom this development is intended for. In this case however it is clear from documents obtained by GMA News that the alleged restoration project accrues to a developer, Oceanville Hotel and Spa, for whom the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) had given permit to cut down 31 trees from the 44 on the property.
And what about the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP), does it have a voice in this, the project being a restoration project? During the 3rd National Assembly of the Local Historical Committees Network (LHCN) hosted by the NHCP in Bacolod City held August2-4, 2015, the two architects invited as resource speakers on adaptive reuse, architects Dominic Galicia and Paulo Alcazaren, emphasized on striving for context and environmental sustainability in the adaptive reuse of historic buildings.
An important consideration in adaptive reuse is its focus on respecting and retaining the building’s heritage significance and adding a new dimension that provides value for the future. In this restoration project, how are these basic considerations incorporated in the developer’s plan to convert it into a hotel and a spa? Developers should be given basic orientation by the NHCP on restoration projects for buildings with a heritage status such as the Manila Army and Navy Club.
Development was also the reason for the cutting of trees along the Manila North Road where some 1,059 trees have already been cut, and only less than 770 remain. We cannot continue cutting trees. Trees form an integral part of the web of human existence and nature’s ecosystem. It is imperative to harmonize the objectives of development with environmental sustainability because climate change is for real. There are architects and urban planners who can show us how best to implement development projects in an environmentally-sustainable manner. It is possible, other countries have done it that way.
The cutting of trees should not become the national pastime of DENR. With the hastiness and speed in issuing permits for the cutting of old trees, the Department is fast earning its new name, the Destruction of Environment and Natural Resources.
It was said that a city has its own smell. Not only do our cities smell, our highways too, in fact the whole country smells. Something smells, and it smells bad. Our national paradigm for development smells of “green” to the core, the smell of trees being massacred for development. Greed is our national anthem.
THE SMELL OF GREEN
06 August 2015 4:56 a.m.
i smell green each day
the smell of tears and fresh sap
of old trees falling
i smell green each day
the smell of old greed entombed
on matchbox dwellings
i smell green each day
the proud flag of greed waving
the national anthem
(For your comments and reactions, please email to: punch.sunday@gmail.com)
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