URDANETA CITY—Finally, after silently watching the acrimonious debate on the 700 remaining decades-old trees along the Manila North Road (MNR) in eastern Pangasinan for weeks, the members of the Pangasinan Federation of Non-Government Organizations (PFNGOs) took a stand but not without exposing the deeply divided sentiments of its members.

The PFNGOs officially decided to s support the resolution of the Sanggunian Panlalawigan seeking to stop the cutting of the trees, not be consensus but by a 1 vote margin.

This was revealed by Ramon Santillan, vice president of PFNGOs, during a round-table attended by running priest Fr. Robert Reyes, and Gwen Borcena, chairman and secretary-general respectively of Green Research, at LIS Land Rain Forest Resort last Monday.

Santillan said PFNGO’s 25-man board of directors decided to vote on the issue recently when it noted that it was Green Research, a non-resident NGO that was taking the lead in the debate on the issue.

The outcome, however, surprised the board itself because the voting resulted in 13 against the cutting while 12 were for cutting the remaining 700 trees.

Lita Duque, PFNGO president, led the 12 while Santillan voted with the 13.
“So, I am here (round-table discussion) because our president is on the other side,” Santilllan explained.

“Those in favor of the cutting of the trees said it was necessary to make way for the widening of the Manila North Road to hasten development,” he said. “We are also in favor of development but we believe that there is another alternative to achieve it but not at the expense of the trees,” Santillan pointed out.

With one vote margin to their side, Santillan’s group joined the Pangasinan Coalition against the Cutting of Trees supported not only by the Green Research but also the Women in Development (WID) in Pangasinan which filed a suit against officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). Another group that joined the coalition is the Pangasinan Federation of Homeowners headed by Daniel Palisoc of San Carlos City.

He said his group is pushing for a win-win solution to put an end to the issue and went on to call the exponents of tree cutting to wait for a little while as the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX) which is parallel to the MNR is now about to be completed.

He urged that the money allocated for the road widening of the MNR be spent instead for the construction of entry and exit roads in Urdaneta, Binalonan, Pozorrubio and Sison to TPLex (Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway).
Santiallan added that the presence of the cement plant in Sison town requires a lot of trees to absorb dust particles emitted by the plant in the air. (LVM)

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