Arroceros Forest Park: Going, going... gone?

Manila is a dying city, with rotting old buildings and dilapidated houses, clogged esteros and rivers, noisy, smoke-filled garbage-littered streets, leaking water pipes, big potholes on roads, mendicants, peddlers, street urchins, snatchers and pickpockets. All this is a painful reality that this country’s leaders are trying to camouflage by malls, monuments, fountains, tiled pavements, expensive lamp posts, modern buildings and concrete parks at the expense of heritage, historical sites and forest parks like the Mehan Garden and Arroceros Park.

The City of Manila’s mini forest, Arroceros Park, has recently been a point of contention between local leaders and other civic groups. With the approval and support of then President Fidel V. Ramos and First Lady Ming Ramos, the Winner Foundation in November 1993 signed a memorandum of agreement with the City of Manila to create and develop a forest park in the former Department of Education, Culture and Sports property owned by the city government.

The master plan of the mini forest was made by landscape architect Wilfredo "Doy" Dizon, who offered his services pro bono. He was then the president of the Philippine Association of Landscape Architects.

Chito Bertol of Manila Seedling Bank was awarded the planting contract. The Metro Manila Authority, Department of Public Works and Highways and the City of Manila assisted them in cleaning the debris of what was once the DECS compound. The mini forest is home to 150 existing old trees, some of which are more than a hundred years old. Manila Seedling Bank planted 3,500 saplings and maintained it for one year before Winner Foundation took over.

In the third year, the Bulacan Garden Corporation commissioned to landscape the front area. The trees were inventoried and tagged with their scientific and common names by UP Los Baños forester Jun Alvarez.

The Clean and Green Foundation extended financial assistance when Mayor Joselito Atienza refused to provide guards as per the memorandum of agreement. Mrs. Ramos offered Winner Foundation a small office space at the Manila Orchidarium at Rizal Park. Together, they put up a nursery and installed a compost pit in the back area. They were able to provide free mahogany and narra seedlings to the Metro Manila Development Authority, the Jesuit seminary in Novaliches, among others.

In 2001, Mayor Atienza announced he would build a city college at Mehan Garden and a teacher’s building at Arroceros Park. In spite of DENR’s legal objections, he removed trees and built a huge Park and Ride terminal for provincial buses using the parking area of the Metropolitan Theater.

The Winner Foundation members, friends and volunteers from the civic business and educational sectors continue to care for and guard the forest. The majority of the trees are not mature enough to withstand incidents of vandalism like stripping of the narra barks, destruction of ground cover, breaking of branches for no apparent reason, and hunting and stoning of birds seeking sanctuary in the forest park.

By partially opening the forest on weekends and providing educational tours and lectures, our people hopefully will learn to love and care for the environment. Through the forest park, it is hoped that environmental education will be provided, and pollution eliminated by creating a breathing space for the city, as well as create a place where the weary urban dweller can have a break from the concrete surroundings of Manila.

Trees give oxygen and both humans and animals need to breathe in clean air. These trees provide shelter, shade, food, dye, medicine and clothing. Their roots hold up water from the earth and prevent soil erosion. They help build the ozone layers that protect the earth from the harmful effects of ultraviolet rays from the sun.

The Arroceros Forest Park is just a small green patch in the city, but it is a respite and a breathing space for many tired and sick souls. It is also a sanctuary to many rare species of birds. Why does Mayor Atienza keep picking on this little forest park when there are still quite a number of unused or abandoned spaces like the PNB building in Escolta? Doesn’t he want the people to enjoy the fresh, clean and cool air of Arroceros Forest Park? In having this park within the city, the dwellers need not go too far and pay high fare just to take a break.

There is really nothing wrong with modernizing and globalizing Manila, but the government must not forget that healthy humans are the key to its progress. They must not be deprived of the essential things that give these humans clean and healthy lives.