SP to DPWH: Absolutely no more cutting of trees
NO WAY, HIGHWAY
LINGAYEN– The earlier request of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) to allow it to remove dead trees that pose hazard to motorists was granted but the latter warned that any further cutting of trees along the national and provincial roads would be met with the “severest sanction possible.”
The stern warning of the provincial board was prompted by a report of Col. Fernando De Guzman, officer-in-charge of the Provincial Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Council, that an ocular inspection along the said MNR stretch showed that “almost all of the big trees (more or less 700) planted/standing within the shoulder of the MNR were girdled or having an initial cut at the lower portion of the said trees.”
The warning of the SP’s committee on environment was made in response to the letter sent by the Third Pangasinan Engineering District to Gov. Amado T. Espino, Jr. who in turn endorsed it to SP.
Specifically, “the Committee hereby reiterates Provincial Resolution No. 269-2014 entitled expressing the sense of the SP opposing the cutting of trees along the national roads within the province, with intent to preserve as many trees as possible with stern warning to the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) Third Pangasinan Engineering District not cut any of the standing big trees, more or less 700…”
Board Member Alfonso Bince Jr., during their the SP regular session on August 18, 2014, said the DPWH will be answerable to the SP with the “severest sanction possible” particularly a resolution seeking for the transfer of the district engineer, if the agency continues to cut the remaining big trees along the MNR road.”
Bince said the SP, however, will allow the cutting of the 14 assorted trees that were already found dead but are still standing by the road shoulder but added that the DPWH will be made to explain the girdling of the remaining trees.
Provincial Resolution No. 269-2014 was passed last June primarily to save the 770 remaining trees out of the 1,829 affected by the road-widening of the MNR along the national highway in eastern Pangasinan towns- Rosales, Villasis, Binalonan, Pozorrubio, Sison, and Urdaneta City.
The DPWH’s District Engineer Emmanuel Diaz had written the governor for his intercession to allow it to be able to remove the dead trees along the Manila North Road (MNR) Urdaneta City-Binalonan-Pozzorubio section that pose danger to the public.
Diaz wrote, “The DPWH is mandated to remove these hazards but our abidance with the Pangasinan Provincial Resolution prohibiting the cutting of trees along roads in Pangasinan is barring us to pursue this mandate.”
Earlier, provincial administrator Rafael Howard Baraan also said that the provincial government’s no-tree-cutting resolution should be “non-negotiable.”
He said there is no need to expand the highway since TPLEX is already serving the purpose. “If you are going to Pangasinan and you just want to relax and appreciate the nature, the culture, and absorb whatever kind of historic importance Pangasinan has, that’s the route (MNR).” (Johanne R. Macob/PNA)
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