‘The trees are not in the right place’

TREE stumps litter the road shoulder of the MacArthur Highway (Manila North Road) in Binalonan town, Pangasinan province. The trees were cut to give way to the ongoing road-widening project from Rosales to Sison towns. WILLIE LOMIBAO/CONTRIBUTOR

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—Former Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco, who announced he was running for governor of the province in 2016, on Monday claimed responsibility for the cutting of hundreds of trees that used to line the sides of MacArthur Highway in five towns and Urdaneta City in Pangasinan province.

“The trees needed to be cut. I will take responsibility for that because I was the one who applied for the permit [to cut them],” Cojuangco told reporters here.

He said he waited for three years for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to issue a permit. “Those trees are not in the right place. They are inside the road’s right of way,” Cojuangco said.

Tree cutting in the towns of Rosales, Villasis, Binalonan, Pozorrubio and Sison and Urdaneta City began in November last year to give way to a road-widening project.

Environmentalists and church groups, through a petition, asked the government to stop the cutting of trees after they saw stumps and fallen trees on their way to Baguio City in December.

Fernando Estrada, community environment and natural resources officer, said about 70 percent, or 1,280, of the 1,829 trees marked for cutting had been felled since Nov. 14 last year, when the tree-cutting permit was issued.

MARK COJUANGCO

The contractors’ 90-day permit expires today (Wednesday, Feb. 12).

Leduina Co, provincial environment and natural resources officer, said the contractors would have to stop cutting once their permit expires, unless the DENR regional office extends it.

Co said she had been directed by the DENR regional office to monitor the area and make sure that no one would be cutting trees starting Feb. 13.

“We will also conduct an inventory of the trees that have not been cut yet and those that were already cut,” she said.

Under the law, each tree cut must be replaced with 100 new trees. Estrada said the Department of Public Works and Highways had allocated about P5 million in trust fund for the replacement trees.

But Cojuangco said the trees should be planted outside a road’s right of way so these would not have to be cut in the future.

Estrada said his office had identified a 100-hectare area in San Manuel town to serve as a site for the replacement trees.

Cojuangco also on Monday announced his plan to run for governor.

“I think I am uniquely qualified and experienced to succeed Gov. [Amado] Espino [Jr.] I will seek the mandate of the people of Pangasinan … in 2016,” Cojuangco told reporters here shortly after Espino delivered his state of the province address.

Cojuangco, who chairs the province’s Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) party, represented Pangasinan’s fifth district in the House of Representatives from 2001 to 2010. He was succeeded by his wife, Rep. Kimi Cojuangco.

Cojuangco, a cousin of President Aquino, said he considered seeking a higher position in the past but said he thought of first earning “substantial” experience as a local chief executive.

“And what better experience can I get than to be the governor of this big province of Pangasinan,” Cojuangco said.

“[Espino] is a party mate. We helped him in past elections. But he is on his last term so I decided to run [in 2016] to continue the development of the province,” he said.

Cojuangco said he discussed his plan with some political leaders of the province and “they feel that it’s about time that I toss my hat into the contest.”

In an earlier interview, he said the support of his father, businessman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., was a factor in his decision to seek the gubernatorial post.

The elder Cojuangco, who ran but lost for president in 1992, is the founder of NPC, one of the leading political parties in the country. Gabriel Cardinoza and Yolanda Sotelo, Inquirer Northern Luzon