The Philippines Is Cutting Down an ‘Urban Forest’ To Fight COVID?

Update: This article and headline have been updated to reflect new information in statements from the Philippine Department of Tourism and Greenpeace Philippines.

The Philippine government’s plan to build a mega-vaccination site on a piece of reclaimed land that critics say is one of the capital’s few green spaces has sparked pushback from environmental groups and vehement denials from the project’s supporters that any local landscape will be disturbed.

The Southeast Asian country has one of the worst outbreaks in the region and is scrambling to ramp up vaccinations on limited supplies, with the added hurdle of widespread anti-vaccine sentiment. To assist with the job, authorities want to build a one-stop shot center to serve 13 million residents in Metro Manila.

But environmental groups opposed the plan for the location, claiming it requires the clearing of nearly 500 trees in one of the bustling city’s few “urban forests”, which is also used by several bird species. The government has since said no trees will be affected and supporters have disputed the term to describe the property.

The 9.5 hectares of land is managed by the tourist promotion body Nayong Pilipino Foundation, which is state-owned but also against the project. It is situated in Manila’s Entertainment City, where many casinos and luxury hotels operate.

“A mega-vaccination facility that will destroy this ecosystem would be a disaster and a disservice to the residents of Metro Manila who need more green and open spaces,” the foundation said in a statement on Saturday, adding that if cleared the reclaimed land could take decades to recover. 

In a joint statement Wednesday with numerous civil society groups, Greenpeace Philippines called on authorities to “urgently drop plans to build the proposed mega-vaccination facility in a reclaimed and forested land”, adding that more decentralized efforts were preferable.

On Monday, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque told board members of the Nayong Pilipino Foundation not to oppose the government’s plan because it is part of the attempt to control the virus, which has infected more than 1.1 million and killed some 18,500 people in the Philippines.

“The construction of the mega vaccination facility in Nayong Pilipino is pursuant to the inherent police powers of the president and this is to safeguard people’s right to health,” Roque told reporters.

Businessman Enrique Razon, a pro-administration advocate of the center who was listed by Forbes in 2020 as the third-richest Filipino, called members of the foundation “idiots” in an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

“We are in the midst of our biggest crisis ever with people dying and they want a park instead of [a] vaccination center!!! Incomprehensible,” Razon said.

A section of the land is already being used as a quarantine facility.

In a statement released Wednesday in response to increased media coverage of the issue, the Philippine Department of Tourism sought to clarify multiple allegations over the dispute. It said the Nayong Pilipino Foundation was involved in discussions and aware of the plans.

“No trees will be affected,” it said in the statement, adding that an environmental planner was brought in to help with the design.

“The architectural team has made sure to build the temporary vaccination facility around existing grasslands and trees,” it said in the statement.

The former executive director of the Nayong Pilipino Foundation, who has since left her post over the dispute, declined to comment but told another outlet that the number of 500 trees came from the contractor of the project who she said asked about a permit to clear them.

Philippine vaccination czar Carlito Galvez Jr. had earlier justified the need for such a large facility as the government wants to inoculate 500,000 people per day. 

“We believe it is inappropriate for the NPF to equate the fate of 500 Ipil-Ipil trees with the lives of hundreds of thousands if not millions of Filipinos,” he said in a statement on Sunday, referring to a fast-growing species of tree found in the lot. 

“Moreover, the proposed site of the facility is a reclaimed piece of land and not a protected forest or a marine sanctuary.”

Galvez has not responded to a request for further comment. 

Observers pointed out that there were many alternative sites that could easily be used, such as the extensive number of malls scattered around the 16 cities in the capital region, which are already being used by some local communities to administer the jabs. 

Schools and universities, which have gone empty in the pandemic, are also currently serving as vaccination centers as these are situated closer to communities.

Albert Domingo, a doctor and health systems specialist, urged the government to carefully look at the number of actual vaccinations conducted in 3,500 vaccinations sites first and explore ways to increase capacity. 

“Someone must tally the output of the vaccination centers and compare it against the goal of the national task force per day. If they feel it doesn’t meet the target, then they can make a case for establishing a mega-vaccination center,” Domingo told VICE World News. 

The Philippines has so far only administered 2.4 million doses of vaccines, according to government data. More than two million doses of AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines arrived early this week. 

“If your vaccine supply is erratic, maybe the mega-vaccination center is not yet needed. What’s the use of establishing this grand monument to efficiency if you can’t establish efficiency because your supply is low,” Domingo said. 

Follow Anthony Esguerra on Twitter and Instagram