SM and the trees of Baguio

Photo source: watwatworld.com

SM City's Baguio branch came into the limelight recently because they are cutting (or earth-balling, depends on who said them) trees around its vicinity to give way for ample parking space for its clients. I would like to give emphasis on the CLIENTS thing because thinking about it, it is really the people of Baguio who are cutting trees, not just SM. SM was just too kind to give them ample space, because they, the people of Baguio, are filling up SM City.

When I was in Baguio a few years back, the place was noisy and polluted with all type of machines running on its streets. Baguio was not as cold as I expected.

So this online protest of sort is like a wimpy cry of a child. Distant and losing ground. Baguio has abused mother nature long before. Unless of course, the real people of Baguio City really cares for nature and this protesting is not done only by outsiders.

Read this:

• Greenpeace: SM Baguio has started the "unthinkable" at the expense of trees
• Rappler: SM uproots trees in Baguio, triggers protests
• Pinoy Buzz: SM Baguio killing pine trees is just part of the problem

Saving Baguio's pine trees is just for show. Go around the place and they have been cutting them trees. This is not uniquely SM's doing.

Stampede!

I was walking carelessly when somebody pushed me.

They were running. Daliiiii! (Faster!)

I stared.

A throng of ladies was actually running towards me. Some gays sashaying after.

Someone stepped on me. Ouch.

Hey!

Sori sir, sori sir. Daliiiii!

I was thinking a bomb will soon explode at SM. I looked around.

They were running.

What happened?

Hey what's happening?

John Lloyd. John Lloyd.

What?

John Lloyd is here.

Ouch!

Yeah. This bastard.

(Pic from manilagayguy.net)

If you have nothing good to say- blog it!

From afar, Catbalogan is just one of the cities of the Philippines. Ordinary, laid back, nothing more. But when you are at the center of all of Catbalogan, the experience is entirely frustrating if not yucky.

The city (by all standards it is not!) is a place where everyone, from children down to standbys in the corner, from the padyak drivers to students and professionals, is a big wastebasket case. And I mean a real waste basket. If it is not clear enough to you- the place is a garbage lot. A big one. 

People (read- everyone!) just throw their waste just about everywhere! Streets. Open sewer. The sea.

I don't know if it is a cultural thing but they do and blatantly do it! Sometimes I consider Warays to be the dirty citizens of the world. But there is Tacloban too, and by affiliation, they are Warays, too. I bet they would protest! But Calbayog (also Warays) is just like that, throwing garbage everywhere, six or seven years ago, my last visit to the place.

I could have shoot several proofs on this matter but it would make myself unclean and I don't want to remember that.

One time, in one of the visits to Catbalogan, that city (which is not a city by all standards, I repeat) a whole mountain of garbages (sic, to make my point clear) could be found everywhere. The problem? The city government and the provincial government could not agree on whose responsibility it was to collect the garbage. Isn't that weird?

And Warays on that side of the world seemed to be at home with dirt and everything dirty! Ewww!

SM City's misguided values

Brouhaha over ‘bahag’ in giant mall 

By Tonette Orejas, Vincent Cabreza
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:30:00 11/18/2008

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Department of Tourism officials and leaders of tourism councils in four regions have scrapped the SM City Clark as future venue of the North Philippines Exposition to protest attempts by mall officials to stop dancers wearing a g-string from performing there.

Reached in China through text messages, DOT Central Luzon director, Ronaldo Tiotuico, confirmed the boycott led by the DOT and tourism councils in the Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Cordillera and Central Luzon.

SM City Clark apologized for the incident. “We are sorry that there has been some misunderstanding regarding the event,” SM City Clark said in a statement sent to the Inquirer.

Apology

“It was not our intention to prevent the group from performing in their costume as we are aware that this is a cultural show.”

The statement said the SM City Clark management was setting an appointment with DOT Central Luzon Director Ronaldo Tiotuico “to apologize to and clarify the matter with him. We have and will always be supportive of DOT activities.”

In the statement, Tiotuico said SM City Clark’s executives tried to stop the performance of the Pines City National High School’s Teatro Pino on Friday because the performers wore “skimpy attire and therefore are bound to scandalize the children watching the show.”

He attributed that statement to Lana Erroba, SM City Clark assistant mall manager. Erroba, he added, said that to Edith Collado, vice president of the Philippine Exhibits and Parks Corp., the DOT’s partner in the event.

Tiotuico said DOT Cordillera Director Purificacion Molintas condemned the incident and demanded for an apology.

Photo from koolbirks.com