Iglesia Ni Cristo Tree Planting: An Unbelievable Waste of Taxpayer's Money

In August 2017 I wrote about Iglesia Ni Cristo's tree planting activity. I followed up on that six months and then a whole year later documenting that it turned out to be a complete failure with all the saplings dying. I thought those posts were the end of the matter. I was wrong. 

If you are unaware the INC regularly plants trees in their communities. They boast about it on their website.

https://iglesianicristo.net/our-programs/

Tree-planting activities and clean-up drives form part of the Church Of Christ’s ongoing program on environmental protection and preservation.

The intention is good but the follow up tends to be poor and in this case nonexistent. At six months the saplings were mostly dead though some were hanging on. A year later basically everything was dead. Now two years later the whole area is being dug up to house squatters.  It has become a reclamation area.

What these photos show is a backhoe carving out roads and men digging drainage ditches. This is the area where the INC planted their trees. While I was taking photos one man approached me and I asked him if he knew that the INC planted trees there three years ago. He said yes. I asked if he saved any of the trees. He pointed way into the distance to two trees and indicated that those were the last remaining trees.

I thought it was interesting that the person I talked with knew about the INC tree planting in 2017 because you can't tell saplings were ever planted in that areas just by looking. But he was very wrong about the trees. Those trees in the distance are not trees planted by INC. Their tree planting looked like this:

Seeing this new development I had to get a statement from the local INC. This is not an official statement but it is what I was told.

I was told the tree planting was ultimately a waste. I was told the Department of Agriculture donated  1,500 trees for the INC to plant at taxpayer expense! I was told that they had planted trees before in a area that is also now being ripped up for construction. I was told the Mayor was present at the tree planting in 2017.

I was also told it was the city which is in charge of the reclamation project. That means the Mayor either forgot about the trees or is willingly ripping up the work of the INC! Or maybe he knows the tree planting was a waste because nobody tended to the saplings.

It also means the Department of Agriculture wasted taxpayer's money by giving the INC free saplings which ultimately died due to their negligence. How many more free saplings has the DOA donated to the INC which have ended up dead? How much more taxpayer money is being wasted on the INC?