What now, Perrelos?

The news this week on the heritage front has been about the century-old acacia trees that are marked for destruction as the road widening proceeds from Naga to Carcar cities. I understand about 19 of these trees will have to be felled as a permit has been issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Manila.

It was this column last year that initially brought attention to the plight of these trees as the Department of Public Work and Highways (DPWH) began conducting consultations in the cities of Carcar and Naga as to the options available to them. Now the road widening has begun in earnest and, if one drives south today, one can see many of those trees are the only ones left standing in the way of what is clearly a new lane.

What is to be done, therefore, with these heritage trees?

There has always been this dilemma between heritage preservation and modernization or urbanization, made even more glaring in a country where the options available in responding to the needs of an ever-growing community are limited by its financial resources. If the Philippines were, for example, Germany, perhaps a totally new highway would have been carved altogether from scratch. Alas, we have to make do with the original road network, much of which started as carabao or foot trails in the Spanish period, later expanded by the Americans as an ambitious national highway system.

It was to their credit—specifically that of DPWH’s predecessor, the Bureau of Public Works—that three or four species of trees were planted all over, to shade people who chose to walk the length of the national highway. Today, the trees have grown so huge and shady that they serve not only their original purpose but have become tourist attractions due to their rarity, especially along that lone stretch of barangay Perrelos where these trees abound not just on one side of the highway.

Last year, Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia requested the DPWH not to cut any tree on this highway. The previous regional director, Pedro Herrera, agreed to consider the governor’s suggestion that the line of trees to the right of the highway going southeast be made a center island.

A new regional director has since replaced Herrera who retired April this year. Engr. Ador Canlas, the new director, has his job cut out for him. I understand from the guys I know at the Movement for a Livable Cebu that he listens to them and even met with them to hear them out.

Coming on the heels of the signing of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of R.A. 10066, the National Heritage Law, the fate of these trees, which are without doubt heritage trees as they are an integral part of the cultural landscape, are subject for registration and protection as required by the IRR.

The fate of these trees now directly rest with the local governments and the residents near where they grow—the immediate stakeholders. This is the same case with the precious heritage houses in Mabolo that will be hit by the impending, and I must admit, much-needed road widening.

I do not envy the DPWH in this scenario. But let me repeat what I have told media persons who asked me about my take on this issue: The DPWH should talk to the immediate stakeholders and find out how to save these trees; if not all of them, then perhaps that largest concentration of trees along Perrelos.

It is time for the people of Perrelos in Carcar City to say their piece.