‘It’s these trees that I now happily see growing quite well and neutralizing the GHG emissions I create when I drive down the SLEX.’
EVERY time I drive down the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), whether it is from BGC to Laguna or back, I never fail to notice the lush foliage in most of the exits, with the looping cement roadways encircling trees planted almost 20 years ago.
That’s why the trees look acclimated to their locations, providing motorists an exchange mechanism wherein the toxic fumes the vehicles produce get transformed in part into oxygen that is central to our lives. And the fact that rapid urbanization in the Philippines has not been well-planned (or planned at all!) means we lack pockets of green to be our urban lungs.
I don’t include the posh villages in this description because they seem to be the only green areas of Metro Manila, if you are able to see everything from a plane’s window.
At least along the length and breadth of the SLEX there are pockets of green at the exits. And I remember quite fondly how they came to be.
Years ago, Senadora Loren Legarda had this laudable cause called “Luntiang Pilipinas” which intended, I think, to make the Philippines an even greener country. Or at least parts of it. And one of those parts was the SLEX.
The SLEX used to be a highway through nowhere when it was first opened, with only rice fields dotting the left and right sides of the roadway. Eventually, those rice fields gave way to subdivisions and then to factories of major manufacturing companies such as Coca-Cola.
In fact, part of SLEX lore is that Coca-Cola donated land so that on it could be built the Santa Rosa exit, next to which the Coca-Cola Santa Rosa plant sits. Neat, eh?
Senadora Loren was inspired to invite the big locators of the properties along the SLEX to join her in greening the roadway. I was with Coca-Cola Export Corporation then, and we gamely joined, donating the funds needed for the seedlings that we ourselves planted along parts of the SLEX and at the Sta. Rosa exit.
It’s these trees that I now happily see growing quite well and neutralizing the GHG emissions I create when I drive down the SLEX.
If only we can have more “green-minded” campaigns like Senadora Loren’s Luntiang Pilipinas. We still have a long way to go if we are to indeed turn our country green.
