Group seeks use of cut trees for school desks

DAGUPAN CITY, Philippines—After pledging funds to restore a Gabaldon building of the Bayambang Central School in Bayambang town in Pangasinan, an agriculture group asked the government to donate the trees cut along the Manila North Road (MNR) in the province so these can be made into desks and chairs for the school.

The Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag) promised an initial fund of P400,000 for the repair of the 12-classroom building, but it said Pangasinan Rep. Rosemarie Arenas would work for a P5 million fund to complete its rehabilitation.

Rosendo So, Sinag president, said his group was appealing to the Department of Public Works and Highways and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to donate the tree trunks because pieces of the school’s furniture had been destroyed when a fire hit the school in June last year.

Samuel Peñafiel, DENR Ilocos regional executive director, said trees felled along the road-widening project site on MNR would be donated to the local governments where the trees originated and schools in those towns.

“But it is possible to donate the trunks to other towns if these are really needed, in consultation with the local governments concerned,” Peñafiel said.

The road-widening project site covers a 42-km section of the MNR in the towns of Rosales, Villasis, Binalonan, Pozorrubio and Sison and Urdaneta City.

The project required the cutting of 1,829 trees along the highway. But when the tree-cutting permit issued to the DPWH expired in February, only 1,059 trees were cut.

So said making desks from the seized trunks would help students of the Bayambang Central School. Yolanda Sotelo, Inquirer Northern Luzon