WE GOT IT ALL FOR YOU! - SM

Since I'm all alone at home, with nothing to do but rest I checked my twitter account, first thing in the morning, and to my surprise it was flooded by all sorts of hate-tweets to SM and Henry Sy regarding the cutting down of trees way up in Baguio to build the new SM Baguio.

For those who do not know what SM is and where Baguio is. Baguio is a lovely place located in the Philippines up North where there are lots of Pine Trees and the weather is cool. The heat in Manila is simply unforgivable so we head up north for some fresh and cool air, and Baguio was always the place to be. SM on the other hand is short for Shoe Mart, which was originally a shoe store and through years has become one of the biggest mall chains in the Philippines, I can sometimes say that it could be the National Mall, since there is an SM mall practically everywhere.

So SM has decided to put up an SM mall in Baguio, one of the very few places in the Philippines without an SM mall. Yes..yes..I understand that building an SM mall means more jobs and a new form of recreation aside from the usual strawberry picking and pink haired horse back riding.

BUT THIS IS WHAT BAGUIO IS KNOWN FOR. The strawberry picking, ukay-ukay, and horseback riding is what charms the people to go to Baguio, we've got enough malls down in the south. Some may say that I'm a bit selfish for not letting the Igorots experience what a mall is, well I don't really think they need that.

So SM has started to cut out the old pine trees (well that is what I have been reading on the internet, quite contrary to what they said , check this link to read the article- http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/01/20/12/sm-no-tree-cutting-baguio-mall-expansion), and what makes it more intriguing is that they cut tress at the dead of the night. WHO DOES THAT? crazy shit this people are up to.

(the alleged cutting down of trees at night)

I'm not so surprised at what SM has done, but I'm quite surprised that the Baguio goverment or town hall or whatever you call it has been supportive of this.

Well, I have never been to Baguio. EVER. Maybe because I lived in the Middle East half my life and maybe there really was no reason to go there. I've heard that Baguio wasn't how it was years ago, it's now a bit degraded, but do you still have to make things worse?

I have no words in this SM Baguio incident, but I think it is totally INHUMANE to be cutting all those trees! We've cut so many trees already, and I think we don't need to cut more. We don't need more malls, besides it just adds up to the the trash and pollution that this country has.

I know a mall means more money and jobs for the people of Baguio, it might even help improve the unemployment rate there. It might be cliche to say that 'there are other ways to earn money', cause there aren't TOO many.

All I hope is that in one way or another, every filipino and the Motherland benefits from this crazyness.

Just minutes ago, SM has made a statement about this. Well they ARE replanting according to them > http://www.rappler.com/nation/3646-sm-we-re-replanting-earth-balled-trees

xoxo