MANILA, Philippines – SM City Baguio welcomed critics and government authorities to its expansion site on Wednesday to show that it is not trying to conceal from the public its expansion project that requires earth-balling trees in the area.

Those who visited the site included officials from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Baguio City Hall and several forestry experts.

Also present were members of the group opposed to the mall’s expansion project.

In a statement released by SM, it said a total of 41 trees had been earth-balled last week before a temporary environmental protection order (TEPO) was issued by a Baguio court.

SM said the earth-balling procedure was done during the night as advised by DENR foresters “to capitalize on the soil moisture to ensure that earth-balled trees would live after they had been relocated.”

UP Los Baños forestry professor Dr. Jose Sargento, meanwhile, said that the relocated trees have been replanted in the DENR-approved designated sites.

Bien Mateo, vice president of SM Supermalls, noted that no trees have been cut, but 40 Alnus trees and one Pine tree have been earth-balled.

He said the operation was done “under the supervision of forestry experts and representatives from DENR using heavy equipment in compliance also with the directive of the DENR.”

SM said that as early as January last year, it began consulting key sectors including the DENR, Baguio City government, the religious sector, the media, and the Baguio Regreening Movement, which is considered the largest environmental group in Baguio.

The firm also said these stakeholders agreed to the project after the discussions.

“We worked tediously for a year gathering all the necessary approvals and permits, made announcements to the public through exhibits and publications in local and national dailies. Our stakeholders understood and gave their go signal at the end of this exercise,” said Mateo.

Soil erosion

SM earlier said the expansion plan will help address the problem of soil erosion in Luneta Hill, where a 7-storey building and an underground parking lot will be built.

Mateo said the erosion was discovered in 2010 which, he said, led to the suggestion of the mall’s planning group to build structures to correct the erosion that had also affected some of the trees in the area.

On Wednesday, SM officials also showed to the inspection team the soil erosion on the sloping terrain located at the back of the mall.

“We went further to plan a parking building to ease the traffic on Session Road, which would also result in lessening the air pollution in the area. To justify the building cost, we added some shopping spaces in the open air levels,” Mateo said.

“We are not only talking here about expanding the mall, our main concern here is to ensure the stability of the structure and its surroundings. This has been an international practice as you can see the same engineering works on other steeply sloping terrain in places like Switzerland, Hong Kong, Baguio, Tagaytay and others around the world ” he added.