Branch 47

By Virginia J. Pasalo

 

YESTERDAY, 06 December 2017, I received an email from our lawyer, Atty. James M. Imbong, regarding the decision to deny our petition for a Temporary Environmental Protection Order (TEPO) ordered by the Presiding Judge, Elizabeth L. Berdal, Branch 47, Regional Trial Court (RTC), Urdaneta City. The decision was made 21 November 2017, more than three years after the case was filed on 05 June 2014. As our lawyer pointed out, “this resolution is delayed and it seems the court took its time to resolve this, which made the case moot and academic already because the trees were continuously cut while the case was ongoing despite our position.”

During the three-year struggle to preserve the trees, frantic calls were made and photos were sent by residents in the area and the media to civil society groups who wanted to stop the carnage, as government authorities continued to massacre the trees in the dead of the night and in broad daylight, while the case was being heard.

By now, all the trees are dead. The budget for the road-widening project that Mark Cojuangco is so dead on spending, is now fully spent. And the Manila North Road (MNR) is wider now, having eaten the spaces where pedestrians used to walk on, and failing to integrate measures for the safety and welfare of the residents who must compete with speeding cars, resulting in so many accidents.

 

07 December 2014 6:37 a.m.

If
and when
the lady moves
to cut your branches
and your trunk
and signs
your death certificate
it is just a matter of time
before the axe falls
and you are gone
by a chainsaw

I will keep the glow
in my heart
to warm my limbs
and thaw the cold
as I approach the bench
that you have become
in court

I will give a name
for all the cut branches
and for the branch
that kept me hanging
with hope
and now threatening
to fall
I shall call you
Branch 47.

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