Pink is out; MMDA going ‘Gibo’ green

By Niña Calleja (Philippine Daily Inquirer) 

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100323-260311/Pink-is-out-MMDA-going-Gibo-green

MANILA, Philippines—“Green” and bear it, BF! Looks like Gibo’s color is taking over your formerly “rosy” turf.

Not only is the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) repainting various road structures from pink to green, but it is also putting up signs trumpeting its new choice of color.

Tarpaulins printed with slogans like “Green is Cool,” “Green Is Go,” Green Is Hope,” and “Green is Clean” would be mounted this week along major thoroughfares, especially along EDSA (Epifanio delos Santos Avenue), to formally launch the agency’s “Go Green Metro” program, MMDA Chair Oscar Inocentes said Monday.

“Green symbolizes environmental growth,” Inocentes said in a statement. “We would like the world to know that through the MMDA, Metro Manila is doing its share to conserve and protect our Earth, our environment.”

He sought the cooperation of the 17 Metro Manila mayors in promoting the agency’s “green ideology.”

The agency had initiated a metro-wide paint job on the pink street signs, foot bridges, sidewalk urinals and lane barriers installed during the term of then MMDA Chair Bayani “BF” Fernando, now an opposition vice presidential candidate.

Fernando’s pink motif—sometimes with a touch of blue—also extended to the facade of some private homes that line major roads and to the MMDA building itself on EDSA in Makati City.

No political brushstroke

In an interview last December shortly after he took over, Inocentes justified the color change, saying in Filipino: “Green is easier on the eyes, while pink is a color associated with gays.”

The MMDA chair denied speculations that the change was a political brushstroke in support of Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro, standard-bearer of the administration party Lakas-Kampi-CMD, whose campaign color also happened to be green.

He insisted that the similarity was just a “coincidence.”

A member of the ruling party, Inocentes earlier served as presidential assistant for political and judicial affairs with the rank of undersecretary under the Office of the President.

4,000 ficus trees

In the statement Monday, the MMDA chief said the agency would also plant at least 4,000 ficus trees on the center islands of primary and secondary roads all over the metropolis.

Ironically, the MMDA under Fernando considered trees planted on center islands and sidewalks as traffic hazards that obscure the view of motorists or hamper the movement of pedestrians.

Trees thus became a casualty of road-clearing and widening projects at the time.

Though his view had its own share of supporters, Fernando’s tree-cutting operations drew the ire of affected residents, environmental groups, and some lawmakers.