Provincial board to probe tree cutting
LINGAYEN—The provincial board will conduct an inquiry on the cutting of 1,829 trees along the national highway in eastern Pangasinan for a road-widening project.
Vice Governor Jose Ferdinand Calimlim Jr., presiding chair of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP), said last week the board will invite representatives of involved agencies, including the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), as well as “known personalities involved or who initiated” the project.
Calimlim said the inquiry is scheduled tentatively for the March 3 regular session, after the SP’s out-of-town session in Alaminos City on Feb. 24.
“Ang nais po ng provincial government especially ng Sangguniang Panlalawigan ay mabigyang linaw ang lahat ng ito,” remarked Calimlim noting that advocacy groups not only from the province are “crying foul” on the issue.
Concerned individuals including Pangasinan Historical and Cultural Commission commissioner Virginia Pasalo and a certain Antonio Vila led a petition addressed to DENR Secretary Ramon Paje to stop the cutting of trees.
This petition was uploaded at www.change.org on February 12, 2014 and 214 supporters have signed up support as of February 18.
Calimlim said the SP aims to determine possible remedies on the cutting of trees in the towns of Rosales, Villasis, Binalonan, Pozorrubio, Sison, and Urdaneta City.
Former Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco, who recently announced his plan to run for governor in 2016, has claimed responsibility for the cutting, adding that he was the one who applied for the permit to cut the trees.
Cojuangco defended the road-widening project saying “Those trees are not in the right place. They are inside the road’s right of way.”
In a previous report, community environment and natural resources officer Fernando Estrada said that about 70 percent of the total target or 1,280 trees have already been cut since November 2012.–Johanne R. Macob
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