BEHIND THE SCENES
Alfred P. Dizon
(We share this statement of the National
Coalition to Save the Trees on occasion of World Environment Day on June 5)
On World
Environment Day last year, our National Coalition to Save the Trees (NCST)
and its campaign to save trees threatened by government projects were launched
in Urdaneta, Pangasinan. Green running priest Fr. Robert Reyes, OFM,
representing Save the Trees Coalition (STC) Pangasinan and Cordillera
Ecological Center director Dr. Michael Bengwayan representing Baguio
network were among the lead convenors of this national coalition.
The
co-convenors of the National Coalition to Save the Trees were the
following: Fr. Edwin Gariguez, executive director, National
Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace
(CBCP-NASSA); Antonio Claparols, president, Ecological Society of the
Philippines (ESP); Alex Baluyot, TanggolMakiling; Eugene Orejas,
spokesperson, Save the Trees Coalition (STC) Pampanga; Virginia
JasminPasalo, Executive Trustee, Women in Development Foundation (WID);
Eric Manalang, president Pro-Life Philippines Foundation Inc.; Norman V. Cabrera,
President, AngKapatiran Party; Dr. Roger Guzman, executive director,
Philippine Federation for Environmental Concern (PFEC); and Patria Gwen M.L.
Borcena, Executive Director, Greenresearch.
June 5, 2015
marks the NCST’s first year anniversary. Since its launching, other groups
and networks from different provinces have joined and/or partnered with NCST
such as Movement for a Livable Cebu (MLC), Cebu Mountaineering Society (CMS),
Save the Waters of Indang Movement (SWIM), Save Mount Talinis Movement, and
others.
Our National
Coalition to Save the Trees and other civil society organizations (CSOs) have
been very disappointed with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources
(DENR) under Sec. Ramon Paje and his leadership team.
They have
demonstrated a “split level performance” in prioritizing the conservation,
protection, and rehabilitation (CPR) of the environment and natural resources
as spelled out in the Philippine Development Plan (PDP).
On one hand,
DENR claims that their billion peso National Greening Program (NGP) has
been successful in increasing forest cover. Yet on the other hand, DENR
has been issuing tree cutting permits resulting to the massacre of thousands of
trees in the forests and urban areas.
As forester
Dr. Roger Guzman asserted during his first ocular inspection of the trees along
the Manila North Road (MNR) in Pangasinan last year:
"Cutting
of mature full grown trees cannot be justified by replacing one tree with 100
seedlings or saplings, which survival rate are not even certain.
Destruction of big trees will contribute to increased carbon emission and will
result to less carbon sequestration."
In addition,
there had been a lack of substantial, transparent and participatory
consultation in many cases prior to the issuance of tree cutting permits. In
some cases, local DENR had marked trees as “dead,” just to facilitate economic
projects pushed by certain politicians and business organizations; when in
fact, civil society experts determined that these trees are healthy and not
posing any grave threats (as in the case of the Southern Cebu trees).
Many
anomalies and controversies have been reported by a number of CSOs about the
implementation of the NGP. No less than the Commission on Audit (COA) reported
about its flaws. Pangasinan Historical and Cultural Commission
(PHCC) Commissioner Virginia Pasalo, one of the complainants in the case vs.
DENR, et al. about the Pangasinan trees recommended:
“The
DENR should be able to provide NGOs with exact locations of trees supposedly
planted, and report on how many of those planted actually survived. Seedlings
planted that were not cared for and did not actually grow should not accrue to
the benefit of corporations masquerading in behalf of politicians greedy to
grab public approval. An award for such haphazard greening is absurd and
insults the intelligence of citizens.”
Environmental
sociologist Patria Gwen M.L. Borcena of Greenresearch lamented:
“The
continuing onslaught on thousands of healthy trees along the roads and even in
forests indicates that lessons learned from these environmental tragedies
have been lost on theleadership of the present DENR. It has failed to make
the necessary shift towards a sustainable and climate resilient
development paradigm that puts a premium on the conservation, protection, and
rehabilitation (CPR) of the environment and natural resources over the pursuit
of monetary profits and other short-term economic
gains.”
Our National
Coalition to Save the Trees and a growing number of CSOs have been angered by
the “tree death warrants” issued by DENR, such as follows: SM
Prime Holdings’ Sky Park Project in Luneta Hill, Baguio; Energy
Development Corporation (EDC)’s Nasulo Geothermal Power Plant in Valencia,
Negros Oriental; and Soleq Philippines’s Solar Power Plant in Currimao, Ilocos
Norte. Green running priest Fr. Robert Reyes, OFM emphasized:
“I use the
words massacre and murder instead of cutting of trees to highlight the
disturbing lack of respect, reverence, or connection that national and local
politicians and heads of agencies display in their attitude towards trees and
nature in general.”
During the
Governance Forum on Tree Cutting held at the North Western University in Laoag,
Ilocos Norte last March 12, Madonna RabangPeta of DEFEND Ilocos
commented:
“Nagpapakita lamang ito na dumadami na ang mamamayan ng Ilocos
Norte na nagtatanggol sa kalikasan sa hanay ng mga kabataang estudyante, mula sa akademiya
at kasama narito ang mga taong simbahan.Patunay lamang ito na lumalawak na ang naabot na kampanya ng mamamayan ng Ilocos
Norte kasama na ang mga komunidad kung
saan sila ang direktang apektado sa epekto ng pagkasira ng kalikasan.”
We echo
Defend Ilocos which asserted in their statement:
“The
execution order for the 600 trees in Currimao is but the tip of the
iceberg. Ilocos Norte’s provincial leadership dream to make the province
the “renewable energy” center in Asia will surely encourage more death warrants
for trees and corporate control of the peoples’ resources. This is exactly
what occurs when transnational corporations project themselves as friends of
the environment and of the people by sugar-coating their plunderous and
destructive projects with phrases like “eco-friendly”, “renewable energy”,
“sustainable development” and the infamous “corporate social
responsibility.” At the heart of these marketing slogans lie the true
source of all the environment and development crises – the quest of
corporations to control resources, exact more profits and pass the burden of
conserving nature and withstanding its wrath to the poor public.
The present
DENR leadership’s major decisions have undermined President Benigno
Simeon C. Aquino III’s promise related to the environment as stated in
his “Social Contract with the Filipino People.”
We appeal to
President Aquino and his Presidential Adviser for Environmental Protection Dr.
Neric Acosta to immediately call for an Participatory Environmental
Governance National Summit to allow concerned CSOs to have an improved
strategic role in planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating policies,
programs, and projects related to ENR, climate change mitigation and
adaptation at all levels (national, regional, provincial and local/community).
We should
also learn from effective ways of protecting the trees as demonstrated in other
provinces. Save the Trees Coalition (STC) Pampanga Eugene Orejas
recommends:
“creation
of coordinating body involving representatives from CSOs, DENR, DPWH,
local government units (LGUs) and other concerned stakeholders in areas
where the trees are threatened by government projects. As a result of the
cased filed in the Angeles green court and efforts of the coordinating
body in our province, we have been able to save more than 3,000 trees
from the stretch of McArthur Highway (San Fernando to Mabalacat), the
Friendship Road in Angeles City and Lazatin Boulevard in San Fernando. This
coordinating body inspected all the trees that will be affected by road
widening. As it turned out, it was found out that the trees can be
saved with a different design and few trees which will be affected can be
earthballed. Our coalition in partnership with concerned agencies demonstrated
that saving trees can be done in an urbanized area.”
The Civil
Society Advisory Committee (CSAC) an advisory group to the United Nations
in the Philippines, also urgently call for the protection of the thousands of
indigenous trees endangered by Philippine government projects. In its
signed statement, CSAC declared all-out support for our
National Coalition to Save Trees and its concrete recommendations as
follows:For the Philippine President --- to immediately issue an order or
memorandum setting aside, as null and void, the Memorandum from the
Executive Secretary dated 16 July 2012 which approved all applications for
tree-cutting permits by the DPWH forwarded by DENR;
For the
concerned national and local government agencies --- to impose a moratorium in
the cutting of trees along national and local roads until the completion of
a comprehensive assessment with CSOs which aims to identify the
implications of the DPWH projects on the environment, health and livelihood of
communities, and find viable or other ways to save the trees;
For the
concerned LGUs, DENR and DPWH offices --- to immediately restore or
rehabilitate all the girdled trees and protect all the remaining trees from
further degradation;
For the
Environmental Ombudsman and green courts --- to immediately act on the
cases about tree-cutting brought under the Rules of Procedure for
Environmental Cases, to enjoin the further cutting of decades-old trees along
the national and local roads, for being in violation of environmental laws and
regulations;
For
the green champions in the legislature --- to initiate a thorough
investigation of the massive tree-cutting in aid of legislation of a new
comprehensive forest law (i.e. Forest Resources Bill) which will
protect the few remaining natural (primary) and residual (secondary)
forests in the country.
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