Green is “in.”  Royal Palms, shrubbery and saplings are inside, above and around eco-condominiums, eco-malls, eco-offices.  Hopeful-looking ficus trees are behind pink and blue cages along EDSA, Quirino and other streets, part of Chairman Bayani Fernando’s Metro-GWAPO program.

Trees reduce pollution, camouflage shanties, screen architectural horrors.  They make cities beautiful—think Champs Elysees, Central Park in Manhattan, London’s Royal Parks.  With a tree planting program and no-nonsense tree protection laws, Singapore is practically a forest.

Traces remain of when Metro Manila was a bosky bower—when giant rubber trees shaded Roxas Boulevard; sampaloc trees lined J.P. Laurel and narra was everywhere—España, Harrison, Lacson, Puyat.  Acacias were so leafy their branches met overhead on United Nations and C.M. Recto.  In Quezon City, Broadway and Gilmore were lined end-to-end with fruiting mango trees and Quezon Avenue with molave.

Arbor Day used to mean tree-planting.  As a U.P. freshman, I helped plant acacias that now shade University Avenue and classmates planted the caballero and African tulip trees that splash red come summertime.

Unfortunately, trees are in peril the moment the planters pack up—chopped down when streets are widened, cemented to their bases when sidewalks are built, amputated when branches approach utility lines.  We have lots of Y-shaped trees.  They are choked when public works people raise streets and sidewalks to solve flooding.  People cook and burn trash in their shade.  They never taste fertilizer or feel pruning shears.  No wonder few large trees remain on our streets and shrunken survivors cry for help.

Beautification is actually the nemesis of Metro Manila trees.  When not cemented to their trunks like electric posts, trees are surrounded by knee-high concrete boxes (usually piled high with debris).  As if the spreading narra trees were not enough, the center island of Buendia/Puyat is even as you read this, being improved with large and heavy cement platforms adorned with river stones and monster pots.  (The bereft rivers must look terrible, but that’s another story.)

When City Hall decided to make Roxas Boulevard a mile-long sidewalk café, trees were axed for access, parking and the tennis ball street lights that someone considered beautiful. Coconut trees were trucked in and concrete poured between street and sea wall.  The cafés have gone, but strangled by all the improvements, the surviving rubber trees look defeated and coconut trees look sick.

In Quezon City, Morato Avenue used to be lined with majestic sampaloc trees.  Some years back, the authorities decided that the shady avenue was perfect for sidewalk restaurant tables.  All available space in between trees was cemented and red tiles laid atop.  With all the rough treatment, the 80-year old trees are dying one by one.

Congratulations and good wishes to Chairman Fernando and Metro-GWAPO on their tree planting.  May they also spearhead the rescue and care of already grown trees—simple things like freeing roots; proper pruning, shaping, feeding, and pest control; convincing sidewalk and street designers that trees are beautiful enough—no need to add pots or pebbles. 

Comments are cordially invited, addressed to walalang@mb.com.ph.