This corner urged the citizenry on Saturday to plant trees in our mountains and forests so that when the next rainfall-laden storm like “Ondoy” comes, there won’t be much flooding, landslides and mudslides.

Trees not only absorb the poisonous carbon dioxide in the air we breathe, they also prevent floods from coming down the mountains. Their roots absorb rainwater.

Siltation or mudflow from the mountains settled on the beds of rivers and creeks which overflowed during Ondoy and “Pepeng.”

Siltation was the culprit in the release of water from the San Roque dam that flooded many towns in Pangasinan.

The mud in the rivers that wound through the dam made the waterways shallow. When the floodwaters came from the mountains, the rivers overflowed.

If trees upland of San Roque dam and other dams upstream were not cut down by illegal loggers and kaingeros (slash and burn farmers), no amount of rainfall would have caused floods to come down from the mountains.

I’m not justifying the stupidity of the San Roque dam operators in releasing too much water too soon, but if they didn’t, the dam would have burst open and the flooding could have been worse.

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Instead of pointing an accusing finger at the government, why doesn’t the citizenry take the initiative into their own hands by taking steps to prevent floods in the future?

Let’s face it: We have a government, especially the current one, that can’t be relied upon to look after our welfare.

We can’t afford to be Juan Tamad (Lazy Juan) who lay beneath a guava tree with his mouth open waiting for a ripe guava to fall.

In a sense, the Filipino Everyman is the proverbial Juan Tamad. That’s why the country, once very prosperous, is now lagging behind its neighbors.

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Civic groups like the Rotary and Lions clubs can ask members to set aside a weekend for their members to plant trees.

Schools can ask their teachers and students to go to the mountains to plant trees during holidays when there are no classes.

Private individuals, such as environmentalists, can invite respective members of society to initiate planting of trees in the mountains or forests.

The late Odette Alcantara, an environmentalist, gathered a number of men named “Ramon” to plant trees on the side of Mt. Pinatubo two years ago.

In Puerto Princesa City, the local government sets aside one day every year for tree planting. Local officials and employees in the government and private sector, as well as schoolchildren, go to the mountains to plant trees.

The reason Puerto Princesa is not flooded when rain falls in torrents is because there are many trees in its forests and mountains, thanks in part to Mayor Edward Hagedorn.

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A book about Hagedorn and his beloved Puerto Princesa will soon be found in bookshelves in the country and abroad.

Entitled “Hagedorn, The Man and the City in a Forest,” it’s a biography of the former hood and gambling lord and how he transformed the once malaria-infested Puerto Princesa into a tourist destination.

Written by Jordan Ross Klow, a young American scholar, and Rolando Salcedo Salvana, a Jesuit priest, “Hagedorn” was not funded by the mayor or city government.

The book is an international private initiative, so no punches were held in telling the life story of Edward Hagedorn.