Protests up vs cutting of trees along Manila-Sisonhighway

SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union — Protests are up against the cutting of more than a thousand trees along the Manila North Road , Rosales-Sison Pangasinan area to give way to a road widening project of the Dept, of Public Works and Highways.

The Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office reported Ruesday more than 80 percent of 784.71 cubic meters of trees, including the century-old ones, have been cut along the PENRO officials said 784.71 cubic meters had come from 1,829 assorted trees where more than 80 percent of these were cut since the issuance of a permit from the DENR.

Officials said for every tree cut, 100 seedlings will be planted in return in the areas identified by CENRO Urdaneta at the DPWH — preferably native tree species like narra, molave and banaba.

The 643.187 cubic meters of logs cut were deposited within the depository/stockpile area identified by LGU, DENR and DPWH.

“DENR has no available area to accommodate the 748.71 cubic meters of logs,” PENRO said.

The trees to be cut in Rosales: 100 or 52.36 cu.m; Villasis 272 or 51.78 cu.m; Urdaneta City, 162 or 90.83 cu.m; Sison 202 or corresponding volume of 44.2 cu. m; Pozorrubio 495 trees or 158.41 cu.m. andBinalonan, 598 trees or 351.11 cu.m.

Since more than 80 percent of these trees were already cut , they will be deposited in their respective stockpile.

In Sison , the logs were brought to New Public Market; in Pozorrubio, Central School; in Binalonan, MRF Carnavacan, Binalonan ; Urdaneta, City Hall; Villasis, Livelihood Center; and Rosales, PSU Asingan.

Initial street value of all logs if cut is about P7 million with P25 per board feet.

The deposited logs will be donated to DepEd and will be used as their chairs and tables as recommended by DENR.

LGUs may also use some of the logs for their offices.

Meanwhile, it was also agreed during the consultation at the Urdaneta City Sports Complex that all branches below 16 centimeters shall be given to residents nearby who have requested for personal use as fuel wood.

To date, there are still standing trees to be cut which are covered by the permit subject for supervision by DENR personnel.

This, as a coalition of non-government organizations, church and concerned individuals issued a statement last week against the cutting of 1,826 trees along the road:

“The recent mega-disasters have demonstrated our country’s increasing environmental vulnerability to the effects of climate change and our rapidly deteriorating environment and natural resources.

“The recent massive destruction of trees in Pangasinan  indicates  that  the lessons learned from these environmental tragedies have been lost on the  leadership of the present Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). It has failed to make the  necessary shift towards a sustainable development paradigm that puts a premium on the protection of the environment and natural resources over the pursuit of  monetary profits and other short-term economic gains.    

 “The mass destruction of Pangasinan’s trees gives another strong empirical evidence that  President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III and our country  have been ill-served by the DENR Sec. Ramon Paje and his leadership team. President Aquino’s  Executive Order No. 23  declaring a national moratorium on cutting of timber in natural and residual forests and establishing the Anti-Illegal Task Force (AILTF)  has been severely undermined not only by  Executive Secretary Paquito N. Ochoa, Jr.'s signed memorandum about the additional exemptions in the ban,  but also by related key decisions pushed by the present DENR leadership team.

The permit targets cutting  1,829 trees in the six  Pangasinan municipalities of Sison, Pozzorubio,  Binalonan, Urdaneta, Villasis, and Rosales.   

We hope and pray that  President  Aquino  and our green champions in the Senate will  order  a comprehensive probe of  the implementation of  E.O. 23,  and at this time  especially of  the   controversial tree-cutting permit issued by the DENR for DPWH’s  MNR widening project and the processes related to its  Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC), as well as  the illegal logging in 2012  by an alleged DPWH contractor in  the Mangatarem forests.”

The statement was signed by Angelina P. Galang,President, Green Convergence for Safe Food, Healthy Environment, and Sustainable Economy;  Bishop. Broderick Pabillo head, committee on public affairs, Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines;  Fr. Edwin A. Gariguez executive secretary. National Secretariat for Social Action,  Justice and Peace; Fr. Robert Reyes, OFM Running Priest and anthropologist; Isabela Fr. Joel Tabora, S.J., president Ateneo de Davao University; Emy Perez, Social development specialist, Municipality of Pozorrubio, Pangasinan; Norman V. Cabrera,president, Kapatiran Party; Esther M. Pacheco,president, Concerned Citizens Advocating Philippine Environmental Sustainability; Antonio Claparols, president, Ecological Society of the Philippines (ESP); Patria Gwen M.L. Borcena, M.A., president, Greenresearch Environmental Research Group ; Atty.Galahad A. Pe Benito, Environmental Legal Counsel, Greenresearch Environmental Research Group;  Atty. Francisco S. Yabut, founding president, Public Interest Law of Angeles City (PILAC); Cecile Yumull, spokesperson, Save the Trees (STC -Pampanga)l Javier Claparols, Board, Ecological Society of the Philippines (ESP)l Rene D. Pineda, Jr., president, Partnership for Clean Air (PCA) Inc.; Victoria Segovia executive director; Philippine Clean Air (PCA); Gigi Chua, president, Consumer Rights for Safe Food (CRSF) among others.