For trees and heritage

As of last count over the weekend, they have reached a staggering number—69 in all. A record number, says the popular online petition platform Change.org of the 69 local and national petitions calling for a stop to the cutting of century-old trees that stand, literally, in the path of road-widening projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways.

The past few months have seen a cavalcade of pleas, all initiated by private individuals and groups calling for campaign supporters. Is the variety of concerns being aired in Change.org a measure of the extent of government’s ineffectiveness? One thing we know: The virtual world has become a platform for airing grievances and calls for redress, wherever the real world is mired in government ineptitude and plain callousness.

If the diversity of concerns is any measure, take note of those that have flooded Change.org in recent weeks: LBC Express to issue receipts that do not fade; Mayor Erap: Restore the Manila Metropolitan Theater; Supreme Court: Designate a special division of the Sandiganbayan to hear PDAF cases; We want cheaper, faster, more accessible and reliable #PHInternet; Isabatas na ang (Enact into law now) People’s FOI-#PeoplesFOInow; PAL: Text your passengers in advance if and when the flight is delayed or canceled; NCCA: Declare the 1909 Casa Vallejo in Baguio a heritage site; US President Obama and US Congress: Bring the bells of Balangiga home; Take your trash back, Canada, the Philippines is not a dump.

The batting record of successful campaigns—the platform calls it “victories”—is something to crow about. The Health Justice Philippines-initiated advocacy, addressed to legislators, to have graphic health warnings occupy at least 50 percent of cigarette packs generated in just the month of June 4,373 signatures. After the parrying pressures (did they really “parry” all that lobby money?) from “the strongest tobacco lobby in Asia” by our legislators for seven years through three congresses, a Graphic Health Warning Law was finally signed by President Aquino last July 15.

Other notable campaigns deserve special mention. The petition for Supertyphoon “Yolanda” survivors to get “more compassionate” handling and processing of death claims, initiated by Lucelle Larawan of Iloilo City, generated an impressive 7,000 signatures. In response to the clamor, the Department of Social Welfare and Development launched a one-stop-shop, multi-agency caravan to reach out to Yolanda-ravaged towns to help survivors reconstitute lost legal documents and facilitate the processing of death benefits claims.

Only this April, there were 2,000 signatories to Save Shark Network Philippines’ campaign: “End Philippine Airlines’ Cargo of Shame: Urge PAL to suspend permanently their transportation of shark fins and other related products on all PAL flights.” As of last news, PAL has joined a bandwagon of 18 international airlines that ban shark fin cargoes to help conserve the dwindling shark population of the world.

One of the most dramatic campaigns was the one begun by Joy Lee of Makati, asking the pharmaceutical giant Novartis to “provide Dario, your former guinea pig, with the FREE medicine he needs for leukemia.” Dario Raagas, a Leyte firefighter, was a first responder during Yolanda. Dario was a “guinea pig” for eight years of clinical trials launched by pharmaceutical giant Novartis and its Manila subsidiary Novartis Healthcare Philippines (NHP). When his cancer became resistant to the Novartis drug, Glivec, and he needed another drug, Tasigna, he found he would have to pay the firm P30,000 a month. What Lee began generated 4,000 signatures. Last April, the Inquirer reported that Novartis “has promised to help Raagas get access to the expensive medication he needs” and that it is “committed to work with his doctor and concerned government agencies and NGOs to help [him] access his much-needed Novartis medication.”

Now, our collective action is being asked on—take your pick (albeit we must sign them all)—69 online petition campaigns mostly addressed to Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson. Of the 69, the most notable are Ivan Henares’ Stop Cutting of Trees for Road-Widening Projects (8,958 signatures and still counting), Balbino Guerrero’s Protect the Trees from Naga to Carcar in Cebu (7,207 signatures, also still counting), Kathryna de Bustos’s DPWH and ERAP: No to Cutting of More Than 400 Trees for Proposed Underpass in España (7,144 signatures also counting), Sariaya Heritage Council’s Help Save Sariaya and its Many Unknown Important Heritage Sites from Road Widening (461 signatures as we write; sign it now!). The rest address a motley of tree-cutting schemes by either the national or local government in Los Baños (Laguna), Bulan (Sorsogon), Mount Santo Tomas (Baguio City), Rosales and Sison (Pangasinan), among dozens of other places, so far raking in more than 28,000 signatures.

Must we be stuck in the phase of educating people about the role of trees in the biosphere? Government planners responsible for all this cutting of trees must still be living in the medieval period.

Sign the petitions now and see the change; nay, be a part of the change that we would like to see. Petitions are not just signed documents. Petitions are voices. Government has no other choice but to listen when the din of those voices reaches a crescendo.