DENR issues 3 other tree-cutting permits

DAGUPAN CITY—More road-widening projects, more tree-cutting permits.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regional office based in San Fernando City, La Union province, has issued three other permits to remove trees, two of them weeks earlier than the Nov. 4, 2013, special permit for the project covering a 42-kilometer stretch of MacArthur Highway.

The 90-day special permit for that section, which traverses five eastern Pangasinan towns from Rosales to Sison and Urdaneta City, expired on Feb. 4. But the DENR said the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which is handling the road-widening project, had asked for an extension because it needed to cut many more trees.

Local and national environmental groups have denounced the cutting of trees, prompting the provincial board to call for an investigation on the activity.

A petition has also circulated online asking Environment Secretary Ramon Paje to stop the tree deaths.

Only 57 percent, or 1,042 of 1,829 trees, along MacArthur Highway have been cut, according to Jocelyn Sagun, chief of the forest management section of the community environment and natural resources office in Urdaneta, citing the latest inventory of trees.

Pangasinan’s provincial environment and natural resources officer Leduina Co said the other permits involved the cutting of a total of only 144 trees and the removal by earth-balling of 52 saplings. These covered the national roads from Urdaneta to Lingayen town; Barangay (village) Acop in Rosales to Guimba town in nearby Nueva Ecija province, and Binalonan to Laoac towns.

The permits were issued on Sept. 23, Oct. 7 and Dec. 20 last year, and were valid for 60 days. These would have expired on Feb. 20.

Former Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco had earlier claimed responsibility in the massive tree-cutting along MacArthur Highway, saying the trees within the road’s “right of way” were not in the right place.

Co said the tree-cutting permits were issued despite President Aquino’s Executive Order No. 23 in 2011, which declared a moratorium on the cutting of trees.

“The DPWH was able to secure an exemption because road-widening projects are considered high-impact projects,” she said.