Mike Asinas is a horticulturist involved in numerous landscaping and greening projects of real estate developers. But later on he realized that he has made projects in different parts of the country, and yet he has not done anything for his hometown. So, he was challenged to do something for San Pablo City, Laguna where he was born and raised.
In 2017, the City Government of San Pablo was able to relocate illegal settlers and commercial business around Sampaloc lake, leaving a lot of empty spaces in the area. He took the opportunity, and made a partnership with the Local Tourism Officer to improve the area as a way of serving his hometown so that people could appreciate and enjoy the beauty of nature. He did all these with the goal in mind to showcase the underrated beauty of our Philippine Native Trees especially in urban greening, and to educate the public about the importance and value of our native trees so that people will appreciate them, and to get them involved in the protection and preservation of our vanishing native trees as well. Currently, there are 500 trees and counting around Sampaloc Lake which they also now call the San Pablo City Native Tree Park.
He envisions their project 10 years from now, as an established native tree park, where people are jogging and riding their bikes under the shade of trees they nurtured, while listening to the melodic chirping of birds, and enjoying the beautiful scenery created by the vibrant flowers of Banaba, Molave, Malabulak, Dapdap, Siar, Salimbobog, Katmon, Dita, among others.
