Cimatu on plan to build new Cebu City cemetery: Don’t cut trees

CEBU CITY—Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu has asked the city government to avoid inflicting harm on trees in the area where a new cemetery would be built.

In a meeting with the cemetery project’s technical working group (TWG), Cimatu, also President Rodrigo Duterte’s COVID-19 point man in Cebu, said he preferred that the trees be incorporated in the design of the cemetery project, which would be known as Cebu City Botanical Memorial Garden.

The site of the project is at the mountain village of Supangdaku.

“If possible, put the tombs and graves beneath the trees,” Cimatu said at the meeting. “Just don’t cut the trees,” he said.

Cimatu visited the area where the city planned to build a new graveyard to cope with the rising number of COVID-19 deaths.

An inventory by the local Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro) showed that at least 102 trees, mostly mango and gmelina, are on the site and could either be cut or transferred for the project.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources required that for every tree that is cut, at least 100 seedlings should be planted to replace it.

A tree-cutting permit should also be accomplished by the city government.

Councilor Dave Tumulak, who authored the ordinance allowing the city government to build its own cemetery, had promised to reduce the cutting of trees for the project and instead incorporate these into the graveyard’s design.

As of July 20, Cebu City has recorded 8,155 cases of COVID-19 with 412 deaths and 4,478 recoveries.

TSB