A tree-hugger's arsenal

When my homeowners' association cut down the healthy, fruit-bearing atis tree by our gate several months ago, I was livid. When I was informed that they would be uprooting the healthy santan shrubs (ixora coccinea) along my wall, I decided it was time to go to war.

Fortunately, I did not have to get into any kind of war with my neighbors. By being obstinate with the gardeners they sent to talk to me (and also by hinting, not too subtly, about the wrath of the engkantos that my neighbors themselves claimed to see), I got to keep all the pink, orange, yellow, and white santans planted in the 1990s by the previous occupant of my home. The santan plants continue to provide me and my neighbors with flowers and butterflies everyday.

Sadly, the ficus tree they planted to replace the atis tree is dead. The irises they planted in the other areas where santan used to grow died shortly after they were planted. Part of me still mourns the atis tree and all the gorgeous plants that were uprooted. Thankfully, the birds-of-paradise across my house returned a few months after they were replaced by the irises. The birds-of paradise and my santans are the healthiest plants in my neighborhood. It is difficult not to gloat.

When a friend called to ask what the legal remedies were to save a fifty-year old mahogany tree in danger of being felled in another ill-advised "beautification" drive, I felt a sense of déjà vu.

In the town where my friend lives, a tree beside the municipal hall was cut, supposedly as part of plans to make the town look prettier. After realizing that cutting the old tree resulted in the loss of balance and symmetry (another mahogany tree flanked the other side of the municipal hall), the head of the "beautification" drive sought to cut the other tree.

There is no subject called "how to save trees" in law school. Environmental Law was an elective when I was a law student. Because of scheduling conflicts, I never got the chance to take it. My interest in the subject arose after realizing that it is impossible to protect cultural heritage without protecting the natural environment.

Checking the Internet, I found that Presidential Decree No. 953 penalizes any person who cuts, destroys, damages or injures naturally growing or planted trees of any kind, flowering or ornamental plants and shrubs, or plants of scenic, aesthetic and ecological value, along public roads, in plazas, parks, school premises or in any other public ground or place, or on banks of rivers or creeks, or along roads and common areas in subdivisions.

Presidential Decree No. 705 or the Revised Forestry Code prohibits the cutting, gathering, collecting, and removing of timber or other forest products from any forest land, or timber from alienable or disposable public land, or from private land without any authority.

These laws can send someone who cuts a tree without the proper permits to jail. They do not do much else to save a tree. I've told my friend that based on Internet articles, the best way to save trees is to be vigilant and obstinate. A 2003 article revealed that residents of New Manila prevented the persons sent to cut trees from doing so until the permit to cut the trees expired. Artists saved hundred of trees along Maharlika Highway last year by staging continuous protests, including hugging the trees to keep them from being cut. In UP Los Baños, a dao tree was saved by citing its heritage value. Saving one tree led to the identification of other heritage trees in the UPLB campus.

I'm now including threats of criminal liability (and not just threats of the wrath of supernatural creatures) in my arsenal, in case another "beautification" drive is conducted in my neighborhood. I just wish that trees (and shrubs) were more like the ents in J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" and that they actually fought back when threatened.

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