UP Los Baños' leaning dao tree survives 'Pedring'

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna, Philippines  – For the nth time, the leaning dao tree at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) campus has survived another typhoon.

The historical – and controversial – tree in front of the Student Union building in the heart of UPLB’s lower campus withstood the strong winds and heavy rains spawned by typhoon “Pedring” the other day.

Interestingly, after every strong typhoon that hits this university town, the question is: Has UPLB’s leaning tree survived this time?

For years, the nearly 25-meter tall dao tree has been “leaning 20 degrees to the side with respect to its vertical position due to its heavy crown and weakened root system.”

The tree’s butt (basal part) was said to be already weak due to disease-causing microorganisms. It was feared that it might eventually fall, thus posing danger to life and property.

The tree was “condemned to die” by cutting on June 8, 2005. But ecologists and tree lovers from within and outside UPLB came to the rescue of the nearly hundred-year-old tree. (Dao is a threatened tree species.)

“Contrary to some people who did think that the dao tree was sickly and ready to fall anytime, I have proved that it is very healthy. As a plant pathologist, I examined in our laboratory root and soil samples collected around the dao tree and found no disease-causing organisms in them,” said Romulo Davide, a retired UPLB professor and former member of the Board of Regents, the UP System’s highest policymaking body.

UPLB landscape architect Susan Aquino-Ong also cited the assurance given by Armando Palijon, the UPLB’s only urban forest expert, that the dao tree, although hallow and leaning, “is not going to fall as alleged.” Polijon has been studying the tree since 1997.

The controversy also caught the attention of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

The NCCA Committee on Monuments and Sites (CMS) revealed that the tree was National Artist Lindy Locsin’s “inspiration” while designing the UPLB’s Student Union building. Owing to the dao tree’s “intrinsic cultural value,” the NCCA-CMS recommended that it and its environs be protected.

The DENR, then headed by Secretary Elisea Gozun, playing a Solomonic role, ruled that the tree “can still be preserved” and that it should be pruned instead of being cut down.

And so it came to pass that the now famous UPLB dao tree was saved.

As if to prove its condemners wrong, the tree survived killer typhoon “Milenyo” that pummeled many parts of Luzon, including the UPLB complex, on Sept. 28, 2006, more than a year after it was to go through the chainsaw.

Milenyo, by the way, triggered a flashflood and landslide in a barangay on Mt. Makiling, killing 15 mountain dwellers. Many of the trees on campus also toppled while branches of deeply rooted ones were dismembered.

One of the dao’s “crowning glories” came in 2008 when it was declared a “Heritage Tree” along with 11 others in the 5,200-hectare UPLB complex.

The search for Heritage Trees on UP campuses across the country, which culminated in a compilation of 100 historical trees in a coffee table book, was among UPLB’s contributions to the state university’s centennial celebration in 2008.

As if to show its gratitude to its saviors, the dao tree went on to withstand the roaring winds and torrential rains of deadly “Ondoy” in 2009. Subsequent typhoons (“Frank” and “Santi” among them) were also no match to the dao tree.

Today, tree lovers, among them Davide and Aquino-Ong, who recommended the dao tree to be one of the UP System’s Heritage Trees, are proud that it still majestically stands in front of the UPLB Student Union building, as envisioned by the late National Artist Locsin.

Next typhoon, please.