Facts and Timelines Regarding the Issues Surrounding the Supposed Cutting of Trees in an Alleged Urban Forest

A lot of times, diving head-on into an issue without knowing the facts behind it puts one into trouble or into an embarrassing position later, to say the least. The Chamber has been aware of reports regarding the alleged cutting down of trees in an area commonly known as the Mini-Golf Course and which is claimed to be within a forest reserve.

In order to be able to understand the facts behind these reports, the Chamber did a lot of leg work and independently gathered documents from various sources that provided factual information on the issue. On this basis, the following were established:

1. On October 22, 2007, Kyung An Co. submitted a proposal to build a hotel-casino project in and around an area popularly known as the Mini-Golf Course;
2. The Mini-Golf Course was originally reclaimed and developed by the U.S. Navy from swamplands in the 1960's;
3. In 1992, under SBMA's Urban Design Guidelines, the Mini-Golf Course and adjacent areas were referred to as Parcel No. 35 and was designated as a resort, retail, and recreational area;
4. In the 1996 SBMA-commissioned Kenzo Tange Master Plan, Parcel No. 35 was declared as a high-end tourism area;
5. Kyung An Co. proposed a committed development amount of P2.5 billion over six years to develop the area;
6. On December 7, 2007, the SBMA Board of Directors approved in principle Kyung An's proposal;
7. On December 7, 2007, the SBMA Board of Directors also approved two other proposals: the MBK Grand Leisure Inc. expansion and Wonderpark Inc., beside the same area and subject to completion of the new CBD Master Plan, of which Kyung An's proposed project is also part of;
   
   Parenthetically, on September 30, 2007, invitations for eligibility for the development of the CBD Master Plan project was published and where five actually purchased bid documents; and where three: Berkman International, Design Science, and Palafox/Woodfield Consultants submitted Technical and Financial Proposals;
   
   Whereas, on January 25, 2008, after evaluation of the technical proposals, Design Science was found to be highest rank followed by Palafox/Woodfield Consultants.
   
   
8. On June 6, 2008, the SBMA Board approved Kyung An's request to assign the leasehold rights to Grand Utopia, Inc.; the development was called the Ocean 9 Casino-Hotel project;
9. Grand Utopia obtained the services of the Yamasaki Group to build the project; and around August 2008 the Yamasaki Group tapped Palafox Associates as its local partner (ref: PDI report dtd 1 Dec 08) to take charge of the ECC and the EIS (ref: PDI report dtd 5 Mar 08);
10. On August 19, 2008, SBMA's Ecology Department inventoried Parcel No. 35 and found 366 live trees where 212 are less than 8 inches in diameter;
11. On 5 September 2008, the SBMA Board approved the awarding of the SBF Master Plan Project to Design Science, Inc.
12. On 11 September 2008, the Ecology Center, in a letter to Grand Utopia suggested that the trees be saved and incorporated in the development plan;
13. On September 11 2008, Palafox Associates received a letter from Concerned SBMA Employees requesting to protect the trees (ref: Arch. Palafox DZMM interview dtd 7 Dec 2008);
14. On 16 September 2008, during a SBMA/SBFCC Liaison Meeting, SBFCC raised the issue about the cutting of the trees;
15. On 22 September 2008, according to Eric Park, executive manager of Grand Utopia, Palafox signed the subcontract with the Yamasaki Group (ref: PDI report dtd 5 Mar 09);
16. On October 29 2008, Palafox Associates begged off from the Grand Utopia Hotel project;
17. On 30 November 2008, newspaper report from the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) came out alleging that 366 trees would be destroyed in Parcel No. 35, out of which 37 are century-old trees; this was followed by many more newspaper reports, radio and television interviews;
18. On 5 December 2008, a consultancy group and non-government organization, Kanlugan, composed mostly of professors and experts from U.P.-Los Banos, submitted the IEER to SBMA, where it recommended that an equivalent reforestation of 8 hectares of land is a better option than balling the trees; also, that 51 of the trees should be retained on site;
19. On 5 February 2009, the Council for the Built and Natural Environments (CBME), the biggest group of architects in the Philippines conducted a fact finding mission and validated that the proposed project site is in a commercial district, there is no natural forest in the proposed project site, and that no tree has been cut or felled; CBME also concluded that vegetation in the project site can neither be considered virgin forest, or a natural old-growth forest, and that there are no century-old trees in the area.

Based from the above, the Subic Chamber Board of Directors came out with a position paper. Now, you have to do a little bit of leg work yourself and head on to our website, www.subicchamber.org/Issue_on_Cutting_of_Trees.pdf, to find out more about it.