Over chopped trees

 

MORE than 1,000 trees have already been felled along the Manila North Road in the eastern part of Pangasinan for a road-widening project. Whichever side you’re on over the contentious issue – with both sides apparently motivated by justifiable reasons – the plain fact is the chopped decades-old trees could no longer be restored to their original state. The battle now is determining the legalities of how the cutting was carried out and if the 550 or so remaining trees in the list should be spared.

Assuming the permit issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to the Department of Public Works and Highways is illegal, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan is on the right track in terms of bringing the matter to court because there are legal issues that are better left for judges to discern and decide on.

In the meantime, there’s something very important that needs to be done: Check the compliance to the terms of the permit based on the 1,280 trees that were cut.

The permit requires specific conditions such as planting 100 seedlings to replace each cut tree and saving the younger trees through earth balling instead of blunt cutting. Did the DPWH and its contractors follow these? A failure to comply should be cause for the immediate filing of criminal cases against those responsible.

Meanwhile, the protesting sectors, while pursuing their petitions and perhaps also bringing their case to court, can help the provincial board in the monitoring and assessment work. In protesting, they should take equal responsibility in evaluating and ensuring that the terms of the permit — whether the court eventually determines that it is valid or not – have been complied with.

It’s no use crying over chopped trees. But legitimacy will give them justice.

 

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Cayetano’s call

 

SENATOR Alan Peter Cayetano has asked the Supreme Court to form a special criminal court to handle cases relating to the pork barrel fund scam.  Said court, Cayetano argued, will hold daily hearings, citing as major reason the wheels of justice grinding so utterly slow.

“Four years after, the Maguindanao Massacre remains unresolved,” Cayetano said in Tagalog.  “The pork barrel scam is almost a year old, but no case has been filed in court.” Cayetano’s proposal is similar to the special court handling the Maguindanao Massacre set up by the Supreme Court in June 2011 in response to a petition filed by the National Press Club of the Philippines. So timely and noble is Cayetano’s proposal that an affirmative Senate vote for it should be forthcoming — even as Senators Francis Escudero and Teofisto Guingona III were initially unresponsive of it.

Swift justice has been this country’s dream since time immemorial. Cayetano’s call is but more than timely to address the issue — finally.

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