Antes pa...those trees
(Antes pa, or before these mangroves disappear, let's take shots of them for posterity, and sharper shots to those who seek to destroy them so their children and children's children would be embarrased by mere mention of their names.)
The gods up there have a unique view of "beautification" which runs quite different, even diameterically opposed to what we ordinary mortals understand.
I took shots of mangroves lining the banks of Iloilo River (actually, an armed of the sea, the Guimaras Straight, and not a river) because they are in danger of being wiped out as the DPWH carries out the pet project of Senate President Franklin Drilon and Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog, named "beautification" of the river.
These demigods consider "beautification" clearing the river of shanties and driving residents into relocation sites far from the means of livelihood, and installing concrete structures, which entails wiping out mangroves on both banks of the waterway.
Decade- and century-old trees -- acacia aure, narra, acacia, Philippine agoho -- are completely gone in the whole stretch of the Benigno Aquino Road and replaced by exotic species, Royal African Palms most of which are wilting today from the heat. That's beautification for Drilon, Mabilog and their ilk.
A similar trend is happening along Luna Street (also known as MacArthur Highway or simply "highway") where trees planted since the '60s have been cut down to give way to that animal "beautification". Had it not been for the uproar by private citizens, the DPWH could not have balked although its top honcho, regional director Edilberto Tayao insists the trees must go in the name of beautification to be replaced by palms.
The beautification that Drilon, Mabilog and their ilk envision is a bizarre sense of aesthetics and profligate spending combined. African Palms cost P6,000 apiece and inferior to the trees they replaced in terms of sequestration of carbons and heavy metals (lead, cadmium, mercury) emitted by motor vehicles. Trees further are more efficient in cooling surroundings which thus make walking more comfortable.
Back to mangroves. Jurgene H. Primavera, retired scientist at the South East Asia Fisheries Development Center (Seafdec), a consortion of several Asian nations including Japan, in fishery research, hails mangroves and its cousins "beach forests" to be "ten times more efficient than inland forest in carbon sequestraion" thus, are better mitigants of global warming. That's beside their other equally vital role as bio-filters of water and habitat of marine life, which means, their presence assures communities shells, crabs, shrimps, mollusks and other fishes for daily sustenance.
Simply letting those mangroves and inland trees stay, taxpayers' money are saved.
Indeed, as Jean Baptiste D'Exupery speaks through "The Little Prince", "what is essential is invisible to adults" or words to that effect. Only kids see what beauty is, to paraphrase him further.
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