New plans, new controversies for Baguio mall
BAGUIO CITY—Officials of what could be the country’s biggest chain of malls yesterday said there won’t be any cutting of trees on a site where the mall operator plans to expand here, contrary to accusations made by online protesters.
In a statement, SM said accusations that it would be cutting trees on Luneta Hill here were untrue.
“SM will be reballing, not cutting” trees on Luneta Hill, said the statement.
The mall operator issued the statement in response to online protests against the plan to move the trees out to give way to the SM expansion here.
Marc Janssen Pe, SM City Baguio mall manager, on Wednesday said the SM mall here was the only open air mall of the company because it was designed to “reduce our carbon footprint … and our reliance on conventional air-conditioning.”
According to Pe, SM was about to receive the country’s first gold rank for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for its mall here.
LEED is a standards certification process dedicated to the architecture, construction and operation of green buildings, which is enforced by the US Green Building Council (USGBC).
Mayor Mauricio Domogan earlier said SM was building a new parking facility on Luneta Hill. Pe said the new facility would accommodate 6,000 vehicles. Part of the expansion plan was to build a sewage treatment plant and an underground water reservoir, said Pe.
The new water recycling system, he said, would mean the mall would stop tapping into the city’s water resources.
Howls of protests over the transfer of the trees, however, were aired online. Michael Bengyawan, who organized last year’s Cordillera Pine Tree Festival, started an online petition opposing the tree transfer.
“Economy at the expense of the environment is greed,” said Bengyawan in his online petition.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources records showed that it takes 25 years for a pine tree to mature. The average Baguio pine tree grows 80 feet high, but only 18 percent of Baguio City remains forested.
