Background of why we need to Save Davao Shrine Hills... please check the website: Save Davao Shrine Hills
PLEASE SIGN THE ONLINE PETITON: Save Davao Shrine Hills
PLEASE SIGN THE ONLINE PETITON: Save Davao Shrine Hills
July 24, 2012
An open letter to all councilors of the 16th City
Council of Davao City
Dear councilors,
“Do not doubt the power of thoughtful, committed citizens to change the
world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever did.” These were the words of cultural
anthropologist Margaret Mead in the 1970s. They still reverberate around the
globe in places, for instance, where powerful transnational companies wreaking
havoc on biodiversity and humanity are being successfully opposed by a handful
of determined individuals. Nothing is impossible because everywhere, government,
business, and civil society are working together to create a better world. Just
look at the wonderful success stories of green cities like Portland (America),
Curritiba (Brazil), Malmo (Sweden), Barcelona (Spain), Melbourn (Australia),
Bogota (Colombia), Copenhagen (Denmark), Vancouver (Canada), and Reykjavic
(Iceland)!
In Davao City, it’s been 6 years since the dynamic team of Barangay Maa
Federation of Homeowner Associations started going to the Sangguniang
Panglungsod to ask councilors to Save Davao Shrine Hills. Today the campaign
has evolved into saving Davao Shrine Hills by turning it into a nature park. We
from the global Movement of Imaginals for Sustainable Societies through
Initiatives, Organizing, and Networking (MISSION) fully support this wonderful
turn of events.
More than 8,000 signatures have been gathered from Davaoenos who want
to turn Davao Shrine Hills into a nature park. More support is pouring in. Add
to this the political will of Davao City councilors who banned smoking in
public places, banned plastic bags in the market and malls, created a bicycle
lane ordinance, stopped aerial spraying in banana plantations, and numerous
other LGU projects big and small. The spotlight is now on the campaign to turn
Davao Shrine Hills into a nature park and the political will of the 24
councilors to stand firm and be united to see it brought to fruition despite
all the money already poured in by developers to build subdivisions on Davao
Shrine Hills. Despite landowners there wanting to build houses on the dangerous
slopes or sell their plots of land!
The Environmental Watch Committee’s beautiful comprehensive powerpoint
last July 23, 2012 says it all: there are too many advantages of creating a
vast nature park in the middle of Davao City! What are we waiting for? Our
children today know far too much about malls, about television shows, and about
computer games. Our children today stay at home too much and are far too clean,
too careful, too timid, too afraid to try new things, to get dirty, to explore
new relationships with other children who look different from them, who speak a
different language, and who think and behave differently. A nature park in
Davao City will make a big difference in children’s lives for sure. Political
will.
Just imagine a nature park in the city – with indigenous trees,
flowers, birds, and insects – that doesn’t forbid children to climb and
explore, to crawl and examine, to walk and lie down on the grass, to be quiet
and mull over the mystery of the sky, to close their eyes and listen to
birdsong, to play hide and seek and tag and patintero with all their might, to laugh
out loud till it hurts, to shriek in surprise again and again and again, to unabashedly
shout for joy! Children need a nature park in the city where they can go on
picnics and read without their thoughts being drowned out by loud music over a
PA system. Children need a nature park in the city to go bird watching and bike
around, and gather under the trees, between the flowers, surrounded by
butterflies to talk about their purpose for existing. Political will.
The timing is perfect to turn Davao Shrine Hills into a nature park. This
January 29 – February 2, 2013 there will be a Liwanag World Festival on
Sustainability and Creativity right here in Davao City that will gather the
best of the world’s most sustainable initiatives in governance, in education,
in science, in business, and so on. Thousands of Filipinos and visitors from
abroad will meet in Davao City to be inspired by each other’s sustainable
initiatives whose flames they’ll bring back to their own communities and light
up the Philippines and the world. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if the Liwanag World
Festival on Sustainability and Creativity will be held in a city that is
striving to be a sustainable city in the truest sense of the word ?
Respectfully yours,
Maya Vandenbroeck
Kate Estember
Tina Suelto
Darlene Suelto
Leo Avila
Melma Abasolo
Gina Cembrano
Monica Ayala
Arjun Marapon
Ellen Trazo
Art Suelto
Neng Suelto
Paolo Suelto
Rhon delos Santos
