Iglesia Ni Cristo Plants Trees and Leaves Garbage Behind

During an early morning run I came across the following sign:

Tree Planting Activity? Sounds interesting and just the kind of reason I bring my camera every time I leave the house. Tree planting is certainly a noble sort of thing to do. Ecologically friendly. We can always use more oxygen and the Philippines can certainly use more beautification efforts.

I came across a guy carrying a very large professional camera set-up and I knew this was the guy to ask where everything was happening.  He said everyone was meeting at the stadium.  So that's where I headed.  It's actually just a basketball court though.  He said he was from the mayor's office but I never did see the mayor.

Loud music is always the signal for Filipinos on where to gather and this morning was no exception.

This little place with coffee and music is next to the basketball court and when I asked where are the trees at, the guys pointed to a place far in the distance on top of a hill just outside the barangay.  I knew exactly how to get there and proceeded accordingly and slowly though all the mud. Rains had been heavy the previous night and since the road is not paved it turns to thick slushy mud whenever it rains.

This was it. This was where they were going to plant the trees. But where are the trees?

Those are the trees.  Little seedlings.  And there didn't seem to be too many of them. Nothing a few people couldn't handle in a couple of hours anyway. Maybe it's just me but shouldn't they have waited until these delicate seedling were a little bigger and sturdier before they go planting them? Seems like they would want to plant something more substantial than just seedlings.

Why are they planting trees at all? No one I asked seemed to know.  The area in which the seedings are being planted is large and open and unprotected.  It's also an area used for growing crops. Pretty odd choice to sow a forest.  Could it be for beautification?  But the area is far away from people outside of the barangay. And if it's beautification they are after why not pick up the trash scattered all over the place?

So much garbage that needs picking up

The hour was getting late and I did not want to stay much longer.  No reason to really. But then I looked back towards the barangay from where I had come and I noticed a lot of vehicles had arrived. People were starting to show up. With all the mud the traffic cops had to direct the people to a safer and dryer direction.

People were arriving in droves. It was like Woodstock. You could say by the time I got to the barangay they were half a million strong.

The only shovel I saw.  Also notice the little paper flags.

I came upon several of these children of God walking along the road and asked them why they were going to plant trees but none of them knew what to tell me.  For people going to plant trees some of them seemed too nicely dressed and it looked like only one of them brought a shovel.  I don't even recall seeing shovels in the area where they were going to be planting the trees. A few were also waving the INC flag which looks like the Italian flag.  But why?  Why did they bring little paper flags to a tree planting activity?

It was time for me to go home.  But they just kept coming.

And coming.

And coming!

Every member of the INC in the area must have showed up.  Seems pretty silly. Why would hundreds (thousands?) of people be needed to plant a few seedlings? Did I mention they only had two outhouses to accommodate all these people?

Notice how the waste goes out a pipe and into the field! What is the point even?

I decided to come back in the afternoon and view the results.

This is what one planted seedling looks like. Surrounded by bamboo slats and planted firmly in the earth. It looks as if they used the bamboo as a shovel since the disturbed area is not as big as one would expect from a shovel.  Here is what a a whole field looks like.

Will these defenceless tress make it? Will anyone be checking on these trees to monitor their growth? Reforestation is a science. Is Iglesia Ni Cristo up to the task? I am going to go out on a limb and say no.  I mean look at the garbage they left behind.

The mark of Iglesia Ni Cristo 

If the INC really cared about the environment and the tree planting was done out of environmental concerns then they would not have left their trash all over the place. If the tree planting was done for beautification they also would not have left their garbage behind. Pretty disgusting. But not as disgusting as the human waste left behind from the porta-toilets.

So much for the pointless tree planting activity which no one seemed to know why it was being done and for which several hundred unneeded people showed up and left their garbage behind.