Citizens beg Mayor to spare the forest park

The STAR issue of April 27 carried the following report headlined "Pollution affects 98 percent of Metro folk": "Up to 98 percent of residents in Manila are affected by air pollution and 50 percent want to move to a less polluted place, according to the latest survey by a global market research company.

"Carole Solidum Sarthou, managing director of Synovate Philippines, said the survey demonstrated that residents believe air pollution has a significant impact on their lives and that the problem was far from improving.

"With 98 percent of Manila residents indicating they are affected by the air pollution and 71 percent believing that the air quality has worsened over the past year, air pollution is clearly a significant problem over a very large proportion of the population," Sarthou said.

"The air pollution is affecting people in many different ways, with 82 percent experiencing irritation to their eyes, nose and throat, 57 percent breathless or having difficulty in breathing and 27 percent having skin problems.

"Air pollution is also having an impact on people’s emotional lives, with 62 percent of Manila residents worrying about the living environment for children and 40 percent feeling depressed owing to air pollution. Of the respondents affected by it, 50 percent indicated wanting to move to a less polluted place.

"Manila residents aren’t just being affected by air pollution in a physical manner, it is also having a perceived effect on their emotional lives. This is a real cost, both in terms of medical bills and standard of living," Sarthou said.

In The STAR issue of April 28, an item headlined "Air pollution a silent killer" reads: "Don’t you know that air pollution is a soft and silent killer? Medical records show that the air we breathe is slowly and silently killing us. With thousands of tons of particulates, chemicals and other pollutants emitted daily by millions of vehicles, hundreds of factories and households, respiratory tract infections will never go down. Studies by WHO and the UN Environment Program show that air in Metro Manila is one of the five dirtiest and most polluted in the world.

"In March 1999 a British journal quoted pediatrician Dr. Miguel Celdran as saying that about 90 percent of his patients have respiratory illnesses. Babies as young as two months old are suffering from asthma.

"These reports are alarming but the government can still address the problem by lessening if not totally eradicating air pollution," the news item added.

The question is: Will the government ever address the problem? Meanwhile, in the face of the enormously terrifying effects of air pollution, ecologists and environmentalists headed by Regina R. Paterno, president of the Winner Foundation, are imploring, beseeching, begging Manila Mayor Jose "Lito" Atienza to stop the construction of the City College of Manila in Mehan Garden and a teacher’s building in Arroceros Forest Park – the only remaining greenery in Manila. As we all know, trees breathe in carbon monoxide and breathe out oxygen, thus helping to purify the air.

The foregoing news items are persuasive arguments for the preservation of Mehan Garden and the Arroceros Forest Park. Further, saving and sparing our greenery is imperative because both the National Museum headed by Corazon S. Alvina and the National Historical Institute have declared Mehan Garden and the Arroceros Forest Park as archaelogical and historical landmarks.

A 1993 Memorandum of Agreement between the government of the city of Manila then represented by Mayor Alfredo Lim and the Winner Foundation then headed by Amelita Ramos as honorary chairman, provides for the creation and development of forest parks in the city for the purpose of beautifying it and enhancing its ecological environment

According to current Winner Foundation president Paterno, Arroceros Forest Park is titled to the city of Manila, a fact supported by the Register of Deeds. Further, Paterno contends that next door to the forest park is a one-hectare property ideal for the City College and the teachers’ building.

Since the 1993 Memorandum of Agreement, which granted Winner Foundation the right to develop a forest park for Manila, it has planted 3,500 tree saplings alongside the original century-old narra, molave, balote, acacia and rubber trees in Arroceros. Today, these 11-year old trees tower over 30 feet high in what has become a beautiful, heavily wooded habitat of 81 species of trees and 8,000 ornamental plants, 10 species of birds as well as butterflies, dragonflies and other forest creatures.

Winner Foundation claims, and I quote: "It is certainly not against supporting the teachers and their need for a new building because it understands how important their work is in educating the youth in academic and civil responsibility.

"However, Winner cannot support the destruction of a site that is so crucial to the well-being of Manilans. It totally contradicts the very essence of civic responsibility."

Artists have joined the earnest appeal to save the Forest Park which was discovered through the initiative of noted painter Araceli Limcaco Dans. Painting sessions there have become regular Sunday activities which are hosted by Winner Foundation, nature and art lovers. The Park is Manila’s last remaining open-air classroom for environmental education.

To repeat, Manila residents are imploring, beseeching, begging Mayor Atienza to save and spare the Mehan Garden and the Arroceros Forest Park – the only greenery left. Joining the hue and cry are environmentalist-ecologists Josefina Manahan, Baby Amisola, Chit Roces, Sylvia Montilla, Ami Paterno, Narda Camacho, Odette Alcantara, Isabel Oriol and Bea Tan among many, many others.

Winner Foundation ends its campaign thus: "Please help us save the greenery for the sake of your children and ours, and for future generations."

Being a reasonable man who believes in culture and progress, who must surely be convinced that air pollution is a silent killer, who believes in healthful living, particularly for children, Mayor Atienza will most likely heed the urgent appeal because, quite simply, it is the right thing to do.