Environment month opens with tele-kalikasan show - ROSES AND THORNS by Alejandro R. Roces

Last Monday, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources launched a three-hour live telethon featuring all the segments of society from government officials to civic, media and showbiz personalities who are actively concerned with the problems of enhancing our environment. The program was part of the World Environment Day celebration, which in the Philippines is celebrated for one whole month. It is noteworthy that the very first piece of legislation that President Macapagal-Arroyo signed into law upon her ascension to the highest post in the land was the government’s solid waste management program.

This year’s World Environment theme is "Connect With the World Wide Web of Life." Indeed, the whole world is becoming a global village and its first concern is the state of planet earth. It is sad but true that man is the most destructive animal on earth. No animal can endanger the future of life on earth. Only man can do that.

On this score, the cities must do their part. We all know that Metro Manila is now one of the most polluted cities in the world. For this reason we are deeply concerned just as to what each city does to alleviate our pollution problem.

Last Tuesday, we were very happy to see that an environmentalist group gathered by the Heritage Conservation Society, Mother Earth Unlimited and the Arroceros Forest Park Association met to try to save the old Mehan Garden. The City of Manila has plans to use the historical site as the place for its expanding City College. We know the importance of the City College, but perhaps there are more practical sites. The Mehan Garden is the old Spanish Jardin Botanico. Significantly, the Philippines and India were the two very first nations in Asia to have botanical gardens. Now, all Asian nations have a national botanical garden, except the Philippines. There was an older botanical garden in Malate between what is now Wright and Indiana streets. It was dedicated to Antonio Pineda, the Spanish naturalist in the Malaspina expedition. But that did not survive. In San Agustin Church in Intramuros, the Agustinian friars have established a modern garden to perpetuate the memory of Fr. Blanco whose tomes on Philippine flora remain the classic books on the subject.

We really wish that the old Jardin Botanico not only survives our times, but it be restored and enhanced. Intramuros was the site of the original Ateneo de Manila and Santo Tomas University. That is the logical place to build the Manila City College. It will help restore Intramuros to what it was – an educational center.