LINGAYEN— The Sangguniang Panlalawigan approved a resolution during its special session on Wednesday (October 7) reiterating its opposition to the continuing cutting of trees along the national and local roads in the province.

Expressing its sense of indignation, the Board adopted Provincial Resolution no. 1594-2015 that spoke of being “bothered by the plan of the Department of Public Works and Highways, as revealed during its Question Hour last September 28, that all the trees that will be traversed by the road widening of the Manila North Road (MNR) will be cut by the agency.”

The resolution, authored by Board Member Alfonso Bince Jr., came after the removal of the 181 alleged dead and dying trees but included live trees as well last month.

The Board also expressed its resentment for not being consulted by the DPWH and its contractor prior to the tree-cutting operations.

Presently, only 543 of the originally 1,829 trees affected by the MNR widening are left standing along Pozorrubio-Binalonan section.

Mr. Bince said the resolution was presented the next day to DENR during environmental summit.

Prior to the approval of the measure, the SP was in receipt of a letter from DPWH Regional Director Melanio Briosas addressed to Gov. Amado Espino Jr. requesting for the lifting of Provincial Board Resolution No. 269-2014 to pave the way for the implementation of the ongoing widening of national arterial road outside Pangasinan-La Union Inter-Provincial Road in Salay. Mangaldan to A.B. Fernandez Avenue in Dagupan City as a total of 24 trees of various species are affected and needed to be cut located in Barangay Salay, Mangaldan.

The resolution had cited Gov. Amado T. Espino Jr.’s letter to the DPWH and DENR dated March 5, 2015, which noted “We wish to make it clear that we are absolutely against the cutting of any more living and surviving trees along the Manila North Road, and we maintain the position that concerned government agencies, such as the DENR, should exert all means to treat and rehabilitate those previously girdled trees that have a good chance of survival.”

“In the first place, it was the DENR, in coordination with the DPWH, that girdled those dead trees.

 

“Consequently, the Provincial Government of Pangasinan interposes no objection to the cutting and removal of said dead trees, to avoid any unnecessary accidents in the area, on condition that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will certify that the trees that will be cut are already dead and beyond revival,” he added.

The Board earlier adopted Provincial Resolution No. 269-2014 expressing the Board’s opposition “to 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 to cut any of the standing big trees, more or less 700.”

Members of the National Coalition to Save the Trees Movement in Pangasinan, lead by Franciscan priest Robert Reyes, Virginia Pasalo of the Women in Development Foundation led the recent protest along the Binalonan-Pozorrubio sector of the MNR. (Johanne Macob/Leonardo Micua)

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