A Flower in the Pavement

When one thinks of Manila, the vicinities in its peripheral, or even the burgeoning cities all over the country, the mind immediately conjures up images of concrete and steel–signifiers of the urban development we often equate with improvement. When we think of the city life, we don’t see blooming flowers in our mind’s eye, not even sturdy trees that frame our view of the heavens. We often see cement roads that stretch across hills and mountains, towering buildings that outline the sky and infrastructure that support what we have come to know as the modern lifestyle. Thankfully, courageous flowers still find reason to bloom in the cracks of the city pavement, nurturing beauty and the purpose nature was meant to serve. One such flower is Sen. Loren Legarda-Leviste, who has, in the four years since she founded Luntiang Pilipinas, planted over a million trees in the least likely of places.

Luntiang Pilipinas Foundation, Inc. blossomed from a passion Loren has had since she was a little girl. "I’ve had a fascination with trees ever since I can remember," she shares. "I started planting maybe 15 years ago." To have trees growing all over the country again is a dream that she shares with her husband, former Batangas Gov. Tony Leviste. "When my husband and I got married, we decided to plant trees. Ten years ago, I set up a foundation called Trees for Life." It was with Trees for Life that Loren helped developed the Calatagan forest park, and with this achievement, her vision took on a more solid form.

Four years ago, in the month of June, Loren filed her fifth bill in the Senate, The Greening Act of 1998, a simple bill that mandated that each city and municipality have its own forest park. However, confessing an impatience that has her wanting "things done yesterday, not even today", Loren refused to let things take their own sweet time. "Knowing how tedious and how slow the legislation process is, I decided to convert this bill, which up to now has not been enacted into law, into my centerpiece program." This, of course, is the seed from which the four-year-old Luntiang Pilipinas Foundation, Inc. grew.

Luntiang Pilipinas was launched on October 28, 1998 as a flagship project under the Trees for Life Foundation. For the launch, Loren picked a grassy but tree-barren spot in front of the Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park for her first tree-planting project. Today, full-grown trees in what used to be a vacant spot provide park-goers a cozy spot for picnic or relaxation. "If we can do this in Luneta," Loren proposed to her growing foundation, "why not do it in other areas?"

And why not, indeed. Since then, Luntiang Pilipinas, with Loren at the helm, has ushered in a transformation in many neglected lots all over the country. "Once, going to Batangas, I saw this vacant interchange full of talahib and garbage, like a lot of other loops and interchanges in the country," she narrates. Today, the Mamplasan Loop, Luntiang Pilipinas’ proudest project to date, is now host to full-grown acacia trees; in Loren’s own words, "a veritable forest in the middle of a polluted highway." In fact, it was in this forest park that Loren celebrated her 42nd birthday in February this year in a program called "Pagdiriwang ng Kalikasan".

Luntiang Pilipinas is also to be thanked, and hopefully imitated, for its successful efforts to line the North and South Luzon Expressways with trees that have helped make travelling a more relaxing exercise, and contributed immensely in providing us with fresher air. This project was undertaken two years ago, also on Loren’s birthday. From 8am to 6pm, Loren and her group planted trees all the way from Carmona, Cavite to Mabalacat, Pampanga. "We had whistlestops every 15 to 20 minutes in 52 loops and interchanges," she explains. In every stop, people from nearby communities helped plant the acacia seedlings.

Loren’s crusade is one that she holds close to her functions as a public official. Every time she attends speaking engagements and wherever she makes an appearance, she makes it a point to include a tree-planting activity in her program. "It’s not just a ceremony," she is quick to assert. "It’s an activity, meaning we involve the people, we leave them seedlings, let them take care of it and develop their own forest park."

Needless to say, it took – and still takes – a lot of persuasion on her part. "I had to convince people it was doable," Loren admits. For starters, the vastness of her vision is a logistical nightmare. Trees need constant care and attention; growing them requires water, and sometimes fertilizer in areas where pollution or natural causes have rendered the soil infertile. The planted seedlings have a lamentable mortality rate of 80 percent. But persistence always draws its rewards, and reward it did this ambitious foundation – with helping hands from all over the world that have been inspired to share their vision.

To date, the office of Luntiang Pilipinas are flooded with offers from various sectors to help. Several companies, civic groups and even foreign governments have now adopted their own forest parks. The foundation has since increased its projects, recently launching the Green Crusaders campaign, which is aimed to increase the spirit of environmental volunteerism among the youth.

Sturdy like the trees they plant is the continuing dream of Sen. Loren Legarda-Leviste’s Luntiang Pilipinas. And as sure as trees will remain here long after man, or, as sure as little flowers will always manage to emerge from concrete, so will this vision flourish because like the trees and the flowers, it is ripe with the innate persistence and strength with which nature is blessed.