Talks on ‘massacre of trees’ along P’sinan highway set

By Gabriel Cardinoza

DAGUPAN CITY, Pangasinan —The fate of more than 700 trees standing along MacArthur Highway traversing five eastern Pangasinan towns and Urdaneta City would be the subject of public consultations  the Department of Public Works and Highways would soon hold, a DPWH official said.

Narchito Arpilleda, information officer of the DPWH district office in Rosales town, said holding of consultations was among the requirements that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources had set in connection with the DPWH’s application for a tree-cutting permit.

“We are done with our terminal report and we are now working on the other requirements, including the holding of public consultations,” Arpilleda said Monday.

 The DENR regional office in San Fernando City, La Union, granted the DPWH a 90-day permit in November last year to cut some 1,829 trees that stand in the way of the widening of the 42-kilometer section of MacArthur Highway traversing the towns of Rosales, Villasis, Binalonan, Pozorrubio and Sison and Urdaneta City.

 But when the tree-cutting permit expired in February this year, some 770 trees remained standing.

“Those trees will have to be cut. They are located within the road’s right of way and they pose hazards to motorists,” Arpilleda said.

Fernando Estrada, head of DENR’s community environment and natural resources office in Urdaneta City, said the consultations would have to involve not only local government officials but also nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and other stakeholders.

“We have not yet issued a new tree-cutting permit. We have written the DPWH to conduct a reassessment and public consultations,” Estrada said.

In March, local and Metro Manila-based environment groups and individuals, including  the “running priest”  Fr. Robert Reyes, held a series of protest actions to oppose the cutting of trees.

The Pangasinan provincial board had also conducted a public hearing on the tree cutting.

During a dialogue with Estrada, NGO representatives found out that the DPWH did not conduct public consultations but the agency submitted resolutions from the town and city councils “interposing no objection” to the project.

Arpilleda said that despite the absence of a tree-cutting permit, construction work continued on the road-widening project.

 “The contractors are now working on sections where there are no affected trees. We have to take advantage of the good weather. We will just return to [areas where trees will be cut] when we get the permit,” he said