War in my village

By Al S. Mendoza

THERE’S A WAR in my village because of trees. Can you imagine anybody hating trees? He must be nuts, or someone living on water (siyokoy).

Nuts as in he has no use of the shade of a tree? 

Siyokoy as in trees won’t survive in the high seas?

Whatever, I can’t figure out one not being able to love a tree. Even Judas must have thanked a tree just before he died. He died by choosing a tree to hang himself.

So, it riles me to see someone rail against a tree. Much more when I see a tree being mercilessly felled.  As in what happened in my village recently.

Of all people, our own homeowners association president, with our own security guards by his side with their guns cocked, has ordered the mass murder of trees in our village.  In one day, he must have overseen the killing of no less than three trees. A rambutan teeming with fruits was spared, thanks to the rambutan owner herself. In a fit of anger, she almost flung her body in front of the chain saw that was about to fell her rambutan. The executioner stopped on his tracks. Who said killers have no heart?

I don’t really know what’s with our president. Struck by witchcraft, maybe?

I know him to be a peace-loving citizen, level-headed, and a certified nature-lover. A fellow golfer, his well-kept lawn and tree-lined backyard would attest to this.

When some of my neighbors went to him to inquire why he was doing it, our president brandished two pieces of documents to justify his madness. One document came purportedly from the barangay captain, the other from the Wild Parks Development Office of Quezon City. He said both documents would allow him to kill 28 trees in our village. Chilling.

And I thought only the DENR was authorized to issue a permit to cut a tree.

And I also thought only the owner of a tree could cut his own tree aided by a DENR permit.  Meaning, you can’t cut your own tree without a DENR permit.

I love life, any life. I’m pro-life. I can almost cry plucking out a weed from my bonsais. 

Has our village become the modern killing fields?

Our president, who has been in office 11 years or so, said the 28 trees need to be killed immediately in pursuit of the village’s beautification campaign. He said the trees block the sidewalks set for paving.

But many of my neighbors disagree. They say the paving of the village’s sidewalks should be voluntary and not mandatory. A general assembly that had allegedly approved the sidewalk paving was likewise cited by our president – a claim many of my neighbors say is untrue.

I never knew, or heard of such meeting. Had I known, I would have been there and become the first to fight it. 

In a show of force to oppose our president’s dastardly act, my neighbors and I held a motorcade around the village right after the Sunday Mass on Sept. 10. Streamers and placards read, “No to cutting of trees,” “We demand a snap election,” “Peace reigned in our village until the sidewalk paving came,” and “Respect your neighbor’s rights.”  One resident surrounded his house with placards that read, “Putol mo puno ko, putol ko ulo mo.” Gristly.

My neighbors and I held a meeting on Sept. 12 to continue mapping out strategies to block our president’s tree-killing spree. One option is to hose down our president and his henchmen if they resume their criminal ways. Such a puny effort at self-defense – but nonetheless a symbol of courage against evil intentions. How sad that it has come to this.

What purportedly started as a beautification campaign has now shattered the peace that was once the pride and joy of my village. 

Several court cases against our president may spring up as a result of our president’s seemingly dictatorial stance. He even refused to face his neighbors gathered last Sunday at the village clubhouse, electing to lock himself up in his clubhouse office – just a spit away from those gathered there whom he had sworn to serve. The servant has become, sadly, a tyrant.

We never learn, indeed.  How many times has it been said that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder?

And who needs beauty if the once beautiful relationship between neighbors is broken forever?

Our president has remained stubborn, ignoring his neighbors’ pleas for a dialogue and seemingly hell-bent on carrying out his plan to massacre the remaining 25 trees now on death row.

All, he said, in the name of beautification.

Alas, my neighbors say there’s more to it than meets the eye.

I tend to agree.

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