Paje sends trees to help reclaim illegal road

Environment Secretary Ramon Paje. NINO JESUS ORBETA/INQUIRER

BAGUIO CITY—Environment Secretary Ramon Paje sent 2,000 tree seedlings to Baguio City to help rehabilitate portions of a watershed that were bulldozed to make way for an illegal road in Tuba town, Benguet province, said an official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) here.

Paquito Moreno, Cordillera regional director of the DENR, said the seedlings were taken to Kabuyao Elementary School near Mt. Cabuyao in the Mt. Santo Tomas watershed in Tuba at the request of Cordillera Conservation Trust (CCT) and Pine Cone Movement.

Joseph Paul Alipio, CCT executive director, had asked volunteers to return to Mt. Cabuyao on Aug. 31, the eve of Baguio Day, and plant the seedlings to take back the road.

Alipio and the volunteers walked on the road carved out of the sides of Mt. Cabuyao on July 15 to plant more than 1,000 tree saplings.

CCT undertook the tree-planting drive amid calls to file a class suit against Baguio

Rep. Nicasio Aliping Jr., who is facing a criminal complaint filed by DENR foresters for illegal tree cutting and forest intrusion. He was blamed for clearing portions of the mountain to develop a road that leads to his land claims there.

The road excavations were also blamed for soil erosion that damaged the Amliang water source being used by Baguio Water District to supply potable water to 20 villages in Baguio City and communities in neighboring Tuba.

But Aliping has denied building the road. His counteraffidavit showed that he had applied for excavation permits to convert a lot he bought inside the watershed into an ecological park.

The DENR lawsuit, however, was delayed after government prosecutors in Benguet and from the regional prosecutor’s office covering northern Luzon inhibited themselves from addressing the complaint.

Local environmentalists said repairing the damage before it worsens during the monsoon season should be the more immediate task.

Alipio said volunteers planted calliandra, coffee and pine trees on their July 15 visit to the project site.

Next week, volunteers will plant 1,000 more calliandra trees, 400 guava trees, 300 coffee trees, 200 pine trees and 50 sets each of jackfruit and guyabano trees, he said.

CCT members and volunteers travel to remote schools in the Cordillera to train students to develop tree nurseries that will replenish their communities’ watersheds. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon