‘Trees’

Many, many years ago, I worked for a retired CEO abroad who lived and owned a 350-acre residential compound. As a live-in employee, I was asked to source a company who could undertake the trimming and treatment of apple trees and several big old trees as well. The job was fairly easy but I confess that it was the first time I ever heard of such a service. After a couple of weeks, I managed to get three offers all of which were submitted to the owner’s office. Not long after, the winning bidder got the green light to commence with their work at the cost of $14,000. By then I really did not have much to do with the people doing the job except to see how far they got each day and how soon they would be finished. I eventually found out the hard way that the job was done when my employer got the $14,000 bill and nearly had a heart attack. My guess is he must have misread the figure as $1,400 instead of 14K and approved the contract without a second glance. Needless to say, someone needed to be blamed and that honor fell on my lap.

I of course, could not understand why I was getting dumped on considering the quotations were quite simple and clear. Not only did the service include the trimming of an entire apple orchard and over a dozen big old trees, the service also included reconditioning or replacing lightning rods and arrestors on all the trees that could be potential magnets for lightning strikes that could kill the trees. Just so you know, pruning or trimming trees abroad is not the same as the wanton mutilation of trees done here in the Philippines every time a tree threatens or rubs against the power line or the gutter of a house. It is the big boy version of trimming a Bonsai plant. You selectively choose which parts to cut based on design or intention. Are you preventing the tree branches from spreading out too far, growing to high, or becoming top heavy? Then after you’ve done all the cutting, you go in again to place medicines that prevent fungus, rot or any other form of infection and finally you give each tree a liberal dose of nutrients in order to recover from all the pruning and trimming.

In any case, little did I know that I was apparently being considered for termination due to the “unusually large expense just to pretty up the apple orchard” even if it was not my idea in the first place. By coincidence a week or two before that could have happened, a hurricane blew into town and massacred just about every tree in our neighborhood, all of them big and small, except for “The pretty orchard that cost $14,000”. Because all the trees had been trimmed short, they did not catch the hurricane force winds. The added bonus was that the treatment was so good that the orchard produced a bumper crop of apples that year enough to produce a year’s supply of home-made apple cider for my employer. The funny part was the strange compliment I received when my employer said “Good thing you had the trees trimmed and treated or we would have had no trees left in the property”.

That mixed bag of experience taught me a life lesson on the need to trim trees. We are now in that season when coming typhoons will surely bring lots of damage and destruction to those trees we all love. On the next dry and sunny day you get, please make sure you find someone to trim the trees before a typhoon cuts them down. 

Given all the reports, allegations and perhaps even rumor mongering concerning the influx, occupation and out of control presence of Chinese nationals in the Philippines, perhaps it is time for the President to order the establishment of a “one-stop shop” or dedicated task force that will oversee, investigate and regulate the presence of Chinese nationals in the Philippines including their investments or business operations. Things are getting quite out of hand and military and intelligence authorities are already raising the “red flag” of warning that if we don’t do something about it, we might find ourselves literally overrun and economically controlled by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.

The most recent cause of concern by local security officials were claims that three islands northwest of the Philippines including Fuga island were under serious consideration by Chinese resort developers. Then there is the Facebook post featuring Covelandia in Cavite that allegedly is being developed to house thousands of Chinese employees for offshore gaming. Before that there was the concern aired by ret. General Hermogenes Esperon calling out the risk or potential threat poised by several hundred thousand Chinese “tourists” or POGO workers. But the biggest problem in all of this is the fact that government response to these concerns can be labeled as scatterbrained or uncoordinated. Military and security consultants say one thing, the Department of Foreign Affairs has a different assessment, and the DOJ/ Bureau of Immigration has a different approach or perspective and all three of them hardly achieve anything.

There is no denying that the flood of Chinese workers and tourists is now a very serious threat that needs to be addressed. If Malacañang has various cabinet clusters that tackle serious concerns, then its time to put up one to deal with the population explosion of Chinese visitors and illegal workers. Friend or no friend, let us not repeat what happened in the last big war when Filipinos woke up one day to find themselves taken over by Japanese imperial soldiers led by guys who used to be their gardener, driver, or grocer. Regulate now or regret later!