DPWH wants to cut dead trees in Pangasinan

ROSALES, Pangasinan—Over a hundred trees, which a government agency had girdled as it expanded the Manila North Road (MNR) in Pangasinan, are dead.

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) district office here has asked the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for permission to cut the dead trees because they now pose danger to motorists.

The dead trees were among the 770 trees spared when the DPWH failed to complete the cutting down of 1,829 trees lining the MNR expansion area, before its tree-cutting permit expired in February 2014.

The DPWH had applied for a new permit for the remaining trees its work crew had girdled, a procedure where a condemned tree’s trunk is stripped of bark which prevents nutrients from reaching its root system.

The girdling of the trees had outraged environmental groups, which petitioned an Urdaneta City court for an environmental protection order covering the 770 trees. The court has yet to decide on the case.

District Engineer Emmanuel Diaz informed DENR Ilocos regional director, Samuel Peñafiel, that 127 of those trees along the MNR section from Urdaneta City to Pozorrubio town are dead.

Diaz’s letter dated Feb. 23 urged Peñafiel to finally issue his agency a tree-cutting permit, which DPWH had sought in July last year to remove the dead trees, said Narchito Arpilleda, DPWH information officer.

Arpilleda said the original request referred to “only 21 dead trees.”

Failing to secure a clearance, the DPWH posted notices last year along the MNR to alert motorists about the danger posed by the dead trees.

“That was the best we could do at that time. But now, with more than 100 dead trees, I hope we will be allowed to remove them before the rainy season begins,” he said.

Diaz said his agency could not just cut the dead trees because of a provincial board resolution that stopped the cutting of trees along the MNR. He said the agency is also barred from acting because of the Urdaneta City lawsuit.

In January, the Binalonan town council passed a resolution asking the DPWH and DENR to cut down or at least trim the branches of the dead trees, which have started to lean toward the road.

The MNR is the main thoroughfare for vehicles bound for La Union and Ilocos provinces and Baguio City. Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon