Every day, humans reduce the green on Earth, the homes of other creatures on this planet. In the Philippine capital... one refuge continues to face challenges to its existence. This is Arroceros, the last forest in Manila. One of the standards in city planning is to have a park accessible to each resident within a 10-minute walk. With my bike, I’m going to go to the nearest park to GMA Network. Six out of every ten Filipinos crowd themselves into cities. And all the buildings add to the congestion. According to urban planner and architect Paulo Alcazaren, the disappearance of green spaces like parks is bad for the health and safety of people. In the event of an earthquake, we need refuge areas. Or in the event of a tsunami or storm surge. It’s important to include these for the balanced development of our cities. 100% of all New Yorkers are within a 10-minute walk to a park. You can’t say that about, for example, Rizal Park. Most residents of Metro Manila are not 10-minutes away from an openly accessible and designed park. From GMA Network, it took me 13.42 minutes to get here by bike. This is what caught my attention when I arrived in Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City. The burning of leaves adds to the heat in the area. It could have been allowed to rot for compost. Cities need parks to breathe. This is why they’re called the “lungs of the city.” Green spaces in a park can reduce heat. I hope that in this park, they don’t cement any more space. So that adds to the reduction in quality of life. If there’s no more green space, there’s nothing to absorb excess rainwater. When rainy season comes, we don’t have the natural capacity to absorb rainwater. This is why even elevated areas get flooded. Alcazaren stresses there should be 50 square meters of green space for every Filipino. But in Metro Manila, only five percent of the whole metropolis remains green and most of those areas are not within easy reach That’s far from enough for the nearly 13 million Filipinos residing in the capital. We had many plans for Metro Manila, a dozen master plans that were never realized. Most of these master plans starting in 1905 initially by Burnham, followed by others in the Commonwealth and independence eras. There was always an allocation for parks and a park network. But those plans were not implemented. The parks were never built and the government was unable to consolidate certain pieces of land into parks. Rising heat and pollution pummel millions of city residents. But in one corner of Manila, beside the Pasig River... there is a hidden paradise. Arroceros Forest Park is considered the last forest in Manila. Jeffrey Mancera, a professor of botany at the University of the Philippines–Manila, frequently visits the park for the variety of plants there. This tree beside me is locally called bagras, and its scientic name is the Eucalyptus deglupta, which belongs to the same family as the guava. Arroceror Forest Park is important because it serves as a home to rare species. But Arroceros is more than just a gallery for scientists. It plays a big role in the lives of Manila residents. According to Prof. Mancera, every tree in its lifetime has the capacity to absorb the emissions from 42,000 vehicles. Moreover, it can bring down the temperature of its surroundings. The leaves of the plants surrounding us have holes called stomata. Plants absorb water to help them grow and become lush. But they also release water molecules into the atmosphere. Plants do this especially when it’s summer and the temperature is high. They do this to release the heat from inside, through the process called evaporative cooling. So aside from providing shade, plants through their natural process also absorb the extreme heat from their surroundings which is later released through another natural process. We wanted to see for ourselves if trees can really bring down the temperature. We got two thermometers. We placed one inside Arroceros Forest Park and the second one right outside the park. Only a few steps separated the two thermometers. Easily, the temperature in the shadow of the buildings outside the park was higher than the reading from under the shade of the trees. Arroceros is also the shelter of former writer Tony Magno. When I retired at the age of 60, I felt burned out from my job. That’s what happened to me. He discovered the park after he retired. It was there where he found peace of mind. When you are outside of this place; when you’re at home or in the office, you are bombarded by so much noise from the radio, TV. But when you’re here, it’s as if you go back to your origins. In man’s primitive years, people were really in touch with nature and that’s why they survived for all those years. Nature taught them how to feed themselves, to live, how to cure themselves. Those are all parts of nature. Nature can also teach us how to be alone, to appreciate being yourself. He’s been a volunteer caretaker of the park since 2007. I thought of volunteering because I like the place. It’s quiet--a place of solitude no TV, no radio noises. You really feel your solitude here. It’s somewhat spiritual. Tony receives a salary from the Winner Foundation, the non-government organization in charge of the maintenance of Arroceros. As time passed, Tony found a new purpose. For the past 13 years, I have entertained several groups of students from different colleges and universities, especially from University of Sto. Tomas, CEU (Centro Escolar University), Letran I consider that really as my real role here. [I’m] not only the maintenance of the place but I value imparting what this place is all about to different student groups. Tony is more than 80 years old. He has been taking care of Arroceros Forest Park for 13 years. But he fears that he may need to look for a new job... because the Manila city government which holds the title of the land has other plans for it. With the help of then Mayor Lim and First Lady Ming Ramos, we were able to purchase this property from the national government and they really raised funds. The City of Manila? Yeah, the City of Manila bought it from the national government through Landbank at a really low price because it was really meant to be a forest and they raised funds. They even held a fund raising in Malacañang. They raised Php 3 million (US$ 58,000) to start planting trees. DepEd (The Department of Education) had a place here but they had already vacated it at the time. We really have to strike a balance, right? We have a university whose students are in need of a sports facility and we have this property, this forest park, that was acquired by the city using education funds. How long can we keep the last forest alive? Mike Lu is the former president of the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines. He’s been coming to Arroceros Park for the last 10 years to see different kinds of birds. It looks tired. What do you call that bird? It’s a common sandpiper, a migratory species. So it’s on its way back to the north. I think it’s just resting here. So Arroceros is its stopover? Yes. Is it rarely seen here? This is the first time I’ve seen it here but I think someone else has seen it before. In the past, he says, only 10 kinds of birds could be seen here. Today, they have listed 25 different species. So why is it important to have a place like this in the middle of the city? For birdwatchers, we want to show people that we have something here; that we don’t have to go to a mountain or a remote forest to see birds. Even city gardens have birds. What’s your favorite to watch here? For me, I find the fantail amusing; the way it moves its tail. Sometimes when it sees a cat passing by, it swoops down and attacks it. The fantail attacks the cat? Yes. As a resident of Manila, how would you feel if this disappears? How will it affect you? I don’t want to think about that. I’d rather focus on talking about the need need to create more parks and how this one should remain. We will use everything within our resources to stop the destruction of the park. But you yourself witnessed how its size was reduced, right? Yes. Building construction reduced the park area. They put roads inside. So a big part of the park was eaten up by the buildings? Maybe around 1/4 of the park was affected. Rafael Doydura, or “Paeng” as he’s better known, is a witness to Arroceros Park’s history. There used to be a mountain of debris here, taller than a person or about as high as a dump truck. Then Mrs. Paterno of Winner Foundation got Manila Seedling to plant trees here. We started planting in 1994, if I’m not mistaken. Paeng used to be the driver of Nini Paterno, one of the founders of the Winner Foundation. It’s the organization that volunteered to take care of Arroceros Park and has been doing so since the ‘90s. Back then, most of this looked like a desert. There were a couple of trees that survived, like the balete tree, the narra, too. Everything else you see now came after that. Unfortunately, the typhoons felled a lot of trees. From being a driver, Paeng is now one of the caretakers of Arroceros Park. There are no more traces of the debris. Indeed, this park is proof that with commitment, areas considered biologically dead can be green again. During the Spanish colonial period, Arroceros was part of the parian or an area where Chinese traders conducted business. The product that was sold here was rice or arroz in Spanish. In Rizal’s time, a tobacco factory replaced rice trading. But that was destroyed during World War II. Several buildings were erected here but eventually each of them was abandoned. So what were the threats you mentioned earlier? You said it was always under threat even from the start, right? It appears City Hall is always interested in this but I don’t think they see the importance or beauty of this park. They just wanted to make it –first of all, they were already able to build a structure inside, right? They killed over 200 trees at that time and they built all these paths so that tells us that they don’t seem to understand the importance of trees and oxygen and whatever. It’s just a very small park and it’s almost like a symbolic park. There should be--for us--there should be a lot more, not just Arroceros. There should be many more of this. Unfortunately, it’s not a priority of the government. They just wanna keep selling properties and build buildings and [keep] developing. Each administration who holds the position in Manila City Hall has new plans for Arroceros. There are times that the place was restricted. And today, developers have a possibility to allow them to build more infrastructures. Last year, there was news that Arroceros Park would be replaced by a gymnasium. The plan of the Estrada administration did not push through though. City Administrator Atty. Ericsson Alcovendaz insists that they have no plans to destroy the park. Well, as we speak right now, we don’t have plans for it because Winner Foundation pleaded not to cut trees. They think when we go in there, we’ll be cutting down the trees. But we’re not that irresponsible. Of course, we have to engage the services of the professionals and urban developers to find out how we could come up with probably a mixed use of the property. We have not sold any property owned by the city. If we have any property owned by the city that was developed into other purposes, you will see that it’s always a joint venture. There is development of city-owned properties but the ownership of the property is retained by the city. Due to the issues involving the park, it’s not usually open to the public. But on Earth Day, the park became more than just a meeting place for its crusaders, it was open to everyone... including bike lovers. More than a hundred cyclists from different places banded to show their support for Arroceros Park. After the hot streets, it was a relief to take shelter under the trees. There are many lessons that we can get from this paradise. This has a medical purpose. In the past, there was no Mercury Drug or Watsons. The indigenous people relied on these to cure ailments like headaches and body pains. So how will you be able to tell its purpose? Well, this can be a broom. You can also get its leaves and crush them. Are you Boy scouts? Yes. What are you doing here? Because it's Earth Day. The government wants to build a gymnasium here. Which do you prefer, a gymnasium or a forest? Forest. Why a forest? It’s nice to unwind here when you’re stressed. You can come here and find a peaceful place. But you won’t be able to play basketball here. There are other places for that. It’s nice to be able to unwind here and breathe in fresh air. It’s full of plants and trees. Sometimes you wish for a quiet corner in this noisy city. in this noisy city. At one point, this park was used by cancer patients for rest. For those of us who live in Metro Manila... there’s no denying that life here can be terrible. That is why it’s all the more important to have places where people can rest their bodies and minds. Before leaving, we stop by Tony’s spot in the park... but he isn’t there. It appears like he left in a hurry. After waiting about half an hour, we decided to look for him. Tony? Tony. I'm Howie. How are you? We're worried about you. You left your food there. I heard that you’d gone to the hospital. I’m okay already. Does your stomach hurt? No, this part. I brought you a book. Thank you, thank you. I heard you like to read. This book is about trees; maybe some of these are here. You’ll learn more about them. There’s banaba, banay-banay. It’s alphabetical. Bangkal. You really love this park, don’t you? Of course. But it’s for the sake of the young people, not mine because I’ll soon be leaving on an airplane. What do you mean by that? Well, I’m already 81 years old. I could reach 90 because I’m quite healthy except for the diabetes which I’m already taking medicine for. So at this stage, what do you want to see before you fly? I want to continue taking care of the forest as long as it’s still here. Despite Tony’s unique situation, I think I understand him and the decisions he made about his life. I think there is a Tony in each of us... that desires clean air; dreams of waking up to bird song; and wants to nap under a tree. For most people living in the big city, this is but a pipe dream. For Tony, the dream has come true. From the sweltering but sometimes shady city of Manila, I am Howie Severino and this is I-Witness.
