File Under Oddities: Sting Stung by Project Save 182, Moves Venue to Cuba-Ho

What is the connection between 182 trees in Baguio City and Sting changing concert venues, from Mall of Asia’s Arena to Araneta Coliseum in Cubao — or as I call it, Cuba-Ho?

Man, great figuring from Sting.  If at all he is sympathizing with Project Save 182 over the sickly trees that SM balled up and transferred to a better place, he sure as hell should have thought of a more ecological venue for his concert.

Because, no matter what the Araneta’s do to Cubao, it is still one of the most polluted areas in Manila.  Just consider the millions of liters of greasy water from restaurants pouring directly into sewerage systems that pollute the Pasig River, Manila Bay and Laguna de Bay everyday; the black smoke from thousands of jeeps/buses; and yes, all the unnaturally reflected heat it is generating from all the concrete in the area — not to mention the radiant heat from all the AC units.

If you asked the guys over at Project Save 182, they’d probably say that they both belong to SM and that probably, people should boycott everything under the SM brand.

Tough luck, schmucks!  The last time I went inside SM Marikina, the place was seriously packed with people participating in the commercialism of All Souls Day.

Not that I particularly like SM, because I usually do all of my shopping at small shopes in Marikina Riverbanks and buy most of my groceries at David’s — where I also regularly buy organic fruit juices and stuff made by food hobbyists in Provident Village.

My idea of a “fun” time is running after my kid in the huge field at the center of the oval in Marikina Sports Plaza or terrorizing millions of ‘janitor fish’ with an air-soft pistol.  Or, if I can manage it, rummage through the shops over at Soler in Manila or spend hours inside either Handyman or Ace Hardware.

I used to be a mall rat, but in my older years, I’ve turned a new leaf and my life is better without having to give in to the urge to splurge in malls — which, really, is what you are supposed to do.

Anyway, they guys who make up Project Save 182 and the guys who supported them, apparently have everything figured out.  I don’t know exactly how they’ve formulated it in their mind, but 182 trees make up the entire ecology of Baguio or Benguet or the Philippines for that matter — because, apparently, Project Save 182 has taken their war against SM nationwide.

Facebook friend, Atanacio Salvador on Facebook put across a couple more points which deserves to be repeated here:

I remember I was fuming mad when I read in a blog that 182 pine trees were being felled by SM under cover of darkness to make way for a parking lot. It was the last straw, I thought.

But the World Wide Fund for the Environment (WWF) set me straight. The trees, it said, were too old to survive and must then be either culled or transferred. It was being done at night to ensure high survival rates for the transferees, and being done under the strict observation of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Now if it were just DENR and some government functionaries, I would raise my eyebrows… is corruption spelled with a ‘’C’’? But this was WWF… who am I to judge?

Well, apparently the people of Project Save 182 have judged it their way, and so has Sting. Although the PS182 guys have failed to mention to the musician that the new venue, SMART Araneta Coliseum, are likewise associated with not so pleasant environmental concerns.

SMART’s sister company, Philex Mines, has recently been slapped billion peso fines for poisoning a major river system also up north with the breach of its mine tailings pond.

Araneta Center, on the other hand, has its own hands full with urban development issues, especially with sanitation and sewerage.

So kudos to you, PS182, you once again placed the country in the map – sealing its reputation among the most corrupt, dirtiest and disorganized – and proving, even virtually, that it’s more fun in the Philippines.

As if having Tito Sotto was not enough.

Project Save 182 seems to have the same mind-set of people who plant trees in asphalt boxes inside urban areas and call it GREEN REVOLUTION.

Over all, I think Sting could have actually done better by cancelling his concert all together and to paraphrase Yangot, “because the brilliance of his intellect and poetry will be wasted on people who only understand doo-doo-doo-dah-dah-dah.”

P. Farol

Writer.