U.P. Beta Sigma Fraternity of Southern California

Visayas Alumni Chapter

UPV Beta Sigma Celebrates Anniversary with the Revival of the Centennial Forest

by Willie Vergara
[as picked up from various sources; photos provided by Brod Shan Buyco of UP Visayas]

“Failure is not an option,” wrote BOD Rene de Rueda, UPBSFI’s Ninong for UP Visayas, on the launching of the Centennial Forest project under the care of our UP Beta Sigma-Visayas Chapter. These are prophetic words, indeed. No amount of El Nino phenomenon or grassfire that devastated half of the CENFOR project area planted with hundreds of trees could lead our UPV Brothers into submission by the vicissitudes of nature.

As a quick flashback on what happened during the year, below are some lines lifted from the (a) UPV Centennial Forest website, and farther down, (b) BOD de Rueda’s report on the CENFOR grassfire.

“Last February 14, 2010, the UP Beta Sigma Fraternity-International (UPBSFI) granted the second tranche of US$500 through Brod Rene de Rueda as committed to support UPV Brods nurture the Centennial Forest (CENFOR). Some of this amount was primarily used to procure and install watering system right at the very core of the CENFOR site. This happened after the three weeks of ardous negotiations with the UPV Administration to build such facility… The resident Brods, some with their friends and ‘loved ones’ (had been) watering the trees whereby every resident Brods was assigned to a specific area in the Cenfor. The watering consumed at least two (2) hours which is much easier and efficient. Some of the Iloilo-based alumni Brods also (continue) to help in watering the trees in some weekends.

“For almost a month, most trees showed remarkable development. New leaves shoot out while yellowish ones turning green. Although some of the trees were unable to recuperate due to intense heat of blazing sun, plans of replacing these are to be laid this coming rainy season.

“Individual tree guards are being prepared instead of peripheral fence which is easily infested by termites. Planting bamboos or ‘madre de cacao’ around the area is also an option to replace destroyed fences. Furthermore, a ‘bahay kubo’ is targeted for construction including branching pipelines with faucets.”

One fateful day last summer, however, a grassfire gutted half of the CENFOR area. BOD Rene de Rueda reported:

“It is with sadness that I report to you (that) last Sunday afternoon, May 2, 2010, Brod Uloe Alama of UPV texted that about one half of our CENFOR plantation in UPV area got burned by grassfire. The very dry soil condition brought about by the El Nino phenomenon made the project area very vulnerable to grass fire.

“I instructed Brod Uloe to take pictures of the burned and unburned area and prepare the needed report for submission to the UPBSFI. I also asked him to secure the water system that the fraternity bought for the purpose of watering the surviving seedlings in the CENFOR area.

“I hope to visit the area as soon as possible to determine what interventions will be implemented especially during the rainy season. Sorry for this turn of events. Hopefully there are lessons learned on the CENFOR burning that will contribute to a more successful intervention in the near future.”

A few months later, as the rains set in, Brod Shan Buyco reported the following in celebration of the 21st UP Visayas Beta Sigma Chapter Anniversary.

1. TREE PLANTING ACTIVITY. I think the last update from the residents last time was the Betan Forest was razed by the summer fire. Turns out that it is not as bad as we imagined. Just the same we planted a few more to replace those that did not survive. See the pictures of the project in the attached.

2.) SOCIALS. Composed of UP Diliman, UP LB and UP Visayas alumni as well as visitors from other chapters in the Visayas.

Enjoy the pictures below.