Protests ignored, tree cutting starts

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Philippines—Despite protests from environmental activists, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has removed 21 trees along Kms 71 to 77 of the Manila North Road in this Pampanga capital for its road-widening project.

At least 21 trees have been cut since Oct. 29 while 15 others will be felled until Friday, said Alfredo Tolentino, DPWH director in Central Luzon.

The cutting went on although activists on Tuesday night lit candles and burned an effigy of Kamatayan (Grim Reaper) that they likened to the DPWH.

The Save the Trees Coalition (STC) mounted the protest on a road across the DPWH regional compound in Barangay Sindalan here. This is the same group that stopped the DPWH last year from cutting more than 5,000 trees from the Bulacan to Tarlac portion of the road, also known as MacArthur Highway, by painting human figures on tree trunks.

As the protest went on, two trucks carrying freshly cut trees entered and left the compound.

Tolentino said the trees had to be removed for a third lane on the eastern side of the road in anticipation of the influx of investments in Pampanga, which hosts the Clark Freeport.

The DPWH pursued the road expansion project although parallel road networks, such as the North Luzon Expressway and Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, had been rehabilitated or built and the eastern side of the FVR Megadike has been converted into a road for light vehicles.

Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson purportedly issued the special permit to cut the 36 trees of various species, according to a signboard that is displayed only at night on spots where the tree cutting is done, monitoring by the Inquirer showed.

“There’s deception here,” STC spokesperson Cecil Yumul said, referring to a violation of an agreement reached in a July 14 summit that no healthy tree would be cut again.

“The trees are also [cut] late at night when almost everybody else is sleeping. They (DPWH and its private road contractor) come like thieves in the night,” she said.

The STC asked Tolentino to resign. Ricardo Calderon, regional director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said the DPWH has jurisdiction over national highways.

“I’m just doing my job to oversee a national project that’s part of a regional development plan,” Tolentino said by phone.

At 10:30 p.m. on Oct. 29, the DPWH used a backhoe to uproot and topple an acacia tree.

The STC hung two streamers appealing to Environment Secretary Ramon Paje to “stop the killing of trees.” A few weeks ago, Paje issued a memorandum calling for stronger enforcement of environmental laws.

Fr. Eddie Panlilio, former Pampanga governor, said “nothing, not even investments, can justify the killing of these trees.”

“We will have to live with trees, not dispose of them,” Panlilio said during the protest rally.

By Tonette Orejas
Philippine Daily Inquirer First