EDITORIAL - Save the trees and never mind human lives?

Tree advocates led by Robert Reyes were at it again. Reyes and four others ran through Cebu City streets last Wednesday with small placards appealing for a stop to the planned cutting of several century-old acacia trees lining the Cebu south road. Nothing wrong with that. They can run all they want so long as they do not repeat their dangerous stunt the last time.

The last time they were protesting, they clambered up the trees meant for cutting. They may have succeeded in stopping the chainsaws, but they risked their lives in the process. Good if they signed waivers that nobody is to blame for anything that may happen to them. But they did not and so, had anything untoward befallen any of them, a big furor would have ensued over which innocent people only doing their jobs would have been held responsible.

But that is water under the bridge for now. For now, as everyone has seen, all are hale and able and running. But as happens when something is askew to begin with, everything goes askew in the end. In the street running protest last Wednesday, the placards they carried came forth with a message that was the height of all irony. And whether Reyes et all did not intend the message to be that way, that was how it simply came about.

Consider one placard. It said "Life is sacred." Consider another. It said "Thou shall not kill." It is not clear if Reyes et al were simply uninformed or were deliberately ignoring a reality that cannot be ignored. And the reality is that three of the trees they do not want to be cut have already fallen, two on top of houses and barely missed killing their occupants, and another just missing a passing vehicle full of passengers. So, is it do not kill the trees and never mind the people?

 The reason the trees are intended to be cut is not simply to give way to a road widening project. These trees are decaying, as proven by the three trees that fell of their own accord. They have become threats to human life. These trees could kill. And even if they do not fall now, experts who checked the trees have given them at most 20 more years of life.

Not all the protesting in the world, by Reyes or anyone, can save these trees beyond those 20 years. In the meantime, for as long as they continue decaying until they eventually fall in 20 years, they will pose a constant threat to human life. Clearly, the priorities of Reyes et al are skewed as well. Why, Reyes even had the gall to write Archbishop Jose Palma, who had already spoken in favor of cutting the trees, to join him instead. What gall indeed. What arrogance.

 Reyes et al are clearly only after publicity. For if they truly want to protect trees, why don't they go into the mountain fastness of Samar, Leyte, Agusan and Surigao where illegal logging goes on unabated everyday. But of course they wouldn't. They are scared of getting shot by the illegal loggers. And there is no media in the forest to cover their stunts.