DENR stops hotel project in Baguio as pine trees die
UNHEALTHY CLUSTER About 100 pine trees start to wither inside a former government-sequestered property in Baguio City where a new hotel is rising. The environment department halted the project on March 14 and asked the developer to explain why the trees died or appeared to be dying. — NEIL CLARK ONGCHANGCO
BAGUIO CITY—Work on Baguio’s latest hotel project has been halted by a cease and desist order following the unexplained deterioration and death of nearly 100 pine trees in its compound.
Barangay officials of Pucsusan reported the dying trees to Councilor Jose Molintas, who sought a city council inquiry on Feb. 24.
Residents in the city’s Outlook Drive were alarmed as trees within a former government-sequestered property, now owned by SMI Development Corp., began to wither before their eyes, according to Pucsusan village chief Karl Gabaen during a city council session on Monday.
Gabaen also complained that the project might have disrupted some of the village’s natural spring water sources.
The SMI lot is part of the Lower Agno Watershed and Forest Reserve. The company was required to obtain clearance from the Protected Areas Management Board (PAMB) on Jan. 15, 2020, before proceeding with its planned 227-room, six-story five-star hotel project, SMI general manager Elmar Lina said during the continuation of the inquiry.
The PAMB had classified the development area, once associated with the Marcos family, as part of the reservation’s multiple-use zone.
Lina confirmed the poor state of SMI’s trees and said the firm had only recently secured the services of a landscaper because none of its employees had the expertise to revive, replenish, or sustain the property’s sensitive Benguet pine, for which Baguio is known.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) issued a cease order on March 14 and required Lina to explain why the trees had either died or were dying, as this could have violated the conditions of SMI’s PAMB development clearance and environmental compliance certificate (ECC), said Linda Claire Pawid, superintendent of the Lower Agno Forest Reserve, during the council session.
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Permits
In a Feb. 3 letter to Molintas, DENR Cordillera director Paquito Moreno Jr. said SMI had been granted permits to cut 93 pine trees and one agoho tree, which were felled in 2022 and 2023. Moreno also confirmed that 51 more mature pine trees were declared dead, while 46 others “had disturbed tree bases,” according to a DENR inspection conducted on Jan. 23.
A DENR enforcement team observed that a cluster of pine trees near the construction area appeared to have either died or been dying due to excavated soil being piled up around their roots. The compacted soil was preventing the trees from accessing oxygen and water, explained lawyer Almary Bacangan of the DENR Cordillera legal division.
She also noted that the team observed that bark had been scraped off the dead and dying trees, leading Councilor Betty Lourdes Tabanda to question whether the trees were deliberately being killed.
“I have gone to the site and saw the poor state of those trees,” said Tabanda, chair of the committee on health, sanitation, and environment.
According to Lina, the project was 60 percent complete and was being undertaken “in good faith.” The tree deaths were “unintentional,” he stressed, and he asked the city government for a second chance to remedy the situation.
