blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

As promised to the readers I went to Mass in Manila Cathedral. Here are some photos from what my environmentalist friends now call as the "Bambi Harper Tree Massacre". Plaza Roma has been cleared of trees. I would agree with Ms Harper, a properly landscaped square would bring it closer to its original essence as a European plaza. In the plazas I have seen in Europe, trees bound the square but the square itself is clear ground. In fairness to Ms Harper, she apologized for the incident. But I honestly believe that she isn't completely off the hook. Since she is head of the Intramuros Administration, the buck really ends up on her office desk. I was relieved to see that the old Ficus was still standing although almost stripped of its branches. If environmentalists did not cry foul then this tree would have ended up as firewood! Note the narra in the foreground (probably planted for Pope John Paul II's visit twelve years ago) has been cut. The contractors that Ms Harper...

Plaza Roma, the main square of Manila, just in front of the Manila Cathedral, was bounded by old Figs Ficus trees. One of them I believe existed even during the Spanish colonial period as evidenced by the old photo (probably taken in the 1870s) above I lifted from http://www.simbahan.net/ . It was then hardly a sapling. (Thank you http://www.simbahan.net/ for giving us an online historical resource on our churches.) I have seen the same tree in photos of Manila devastated by the 1945 battle. The cathedral was almost totally destroyed save its facade. In one of the photos GIs are seen having a drink under the tree that was by then a strapping tough balete . As of the last time I was in Intramuros for the traditional Visita Iglesia last March, the tree provided shade for us while we drank our C2 ice tea. We just said our prayers under the tree since the cathedral was jampacked with worshippers. But horrors, the photo in today's print edition of the Philippine Star shows the tree n...