Environment groups to ‘retake’ road project

BAGUIO CITY—Two groups of environmentalists on Wednesday said they would “retake” what they called an illegal road project initiated by Baguio Rep. Nicasio Aliping Jr. inside the Mt. Sto. Tomas watershed to plant saplings and replace more than 700 trees that were destroyed in the area.

The Cordillera Conservation Trust (CCT) and Greenpeace Philippines have encouraged people online to help reforest the road on July 15, Cordillera Day, a special holiday in the region to mark the establishment of the Cordillera Administrative Region in 1987.

Their posts urged volunteers to “celebrate Cordillera Day by taking back and caring for our mountains.”

Aliping has been accused of developing the road. He is facing charges of violation of forestry and environmental laws in the office of the Benguet prosecutor, the Environmental Management Bureau and the Pollution Adjudication Board.

On Monday, Aliping said he had no part in the road diggings along the side of a mountain that supposedly leads to his land claims in Mt. Cabuyao, a part of the Sto. Tomas watershed.

The “retake” campaign was launched by Joseph Paul Alipio, CCT director, who earlier urged local officials to destroy the road so it would no longer be used.

During a June 26 environmental forum organized by the John Hay Management Corp., Alipio showed photographs of damaged watershed sections, which were allegedly dug up for the construction of a 2.6-km road.

Alipio said he went to the Mt. Cabuyao section of the watershed on June 25 and saw the road “not only displaced more than 700 grown trees and tree saplings but also the watershed microorganisms that sustain the ecosystem.”

“What was disturbing was the silence in the area. There were no birds, no insects,” he said.

Alipio’s group helps remote Cordillera schools build their own tree nurseries for reforestation programs. Most of these schools are in or near forest areas. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon