Pangasinan execs firm vs tree cutting along road

TREE SAVIORS Dong Abay, vocalist of the 1990s duo Yano, ties a ribbon around the trunk of a tree along the Manila North Road in Binalonan, Pangasinan province, to dramatize protests against the cutting of trees to give way to a road-widening project. WILLIE LOMIBAO/INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—The provincial board is standing by its opposition to the cutting of trees to make way for the expansion of the Manila North Road (MNR).

“We will continue to sustain our opposition to the further cutting of trees,” Board Member Alfonso Bince Jr. said, following a discussion with officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) on Sept. 28.

The board has voted to express this policy in a proposed resolution addressed to Environment Secretary Ramon Paje and Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson and before workers cut last week 181 trees along the MNR that had been declared dead and dying.

Bince said the resolution expressed the board’s objections to “the cutting of trees along the national roads within the province” and “its intent to preserve as many trees as possible.”

It also warned the DPWH district in the province against cutting more than 700 trees standing in the way of the MNR’s expansion in the towns of Bolinao and Pozorrubio.

The DPWH permit to cut the trees lapsed before it could complete the clearing of road impediments. Its application to extend the permit was opposed by local officials and environmentalists led by “running priest” Robert Reyes, when they discovered that all the condemned trees were girdled.

Girdling is a process that kills trees by peeling off the trunk’s bark to stop nutrients from circulating.

Bince said the board would not stand in the way of cutting dead trees because these were posing a threat to motorists. But he said the board was not consulted about the new tree-cutting operation allowed by the DENR.

Gwendolyn Bambalan, DENR assistant regional director, said the agency had not granted the DPWH’s application to cut the remaining 589 trees “in consideration to the request of Governor [Amado Espino Jr.] to spare living trees.”

In a March 5 letter to the DENR and the DPWH, Espino said: “We wish to make it clear that we are absolutely against the cutting of any more living and surviving trees along the Manila North Road, and we maintain the position that concerned government agencies, such as the DENR, should exert all means to treat and rehabilitate those previously girdled trees that have a good chance of survival.”

“In the first place, it was the DENR, in coordination with the DPWH, that girdled those dead trees. Consequently, the provincial government of Pangasinan interposes no objection to the cutting and removal of said dead trees to avoid any unnecessary accidents in the area, on condition that the DENR will certify that the trees that will be cut are already dead and beyond revival.”

The DPWH request to cut the remaining trees is being evaluated by the agency’s central office, Bambalan said.