DPWH to remove 1,200 acacia trees to widen road

By Albert B. Lacanlale

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO--- In the next three to five years, some 1,200 age-old acacia trees in Pampanga will be either cut down or removed by “earthballing” to give way to the expansion project for the Manila North Road (MacArthur Highway) here.

Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Central Luzon director Alfredo Tolentino said the department has obtained a permit from the Environment Department to remove the trees that hamper the widening effort for the highway, which is planned to be expanded from four-lane to six-lane.

Cutting of trees actually started early this month in Barangay Sindalan, several meters from the DPWH regional office compound here.

Tolentino said the cutting of trees will be conducted only on sections that have allocation for the widening. The project for the total 150-kilometer stretch of the MNR from Meycauayan, Bulacan to San Manuel, Pangasinan seeks a budget of P5 billion.

“We will not move the trees if we do not have budget yet for that section,” Tolentino said.

The cutting of the initial 300 trees in Pampanga resumed despite calls from environmental advocates to preserve the trees and for the government to seek a win-win solution to the traffic problem along the inter-provincial highway without sacrificing the environment.

Last week, Pampanga Board Member Ricardo Yabut appealed to the DPWH to reconsider the plan of massive cutting of some 1,581 acacia trees---as specified in the DERN permit--from Apalit town to this city.

Yabut, who chairs the provincial board’s committee on environment, said a committee hearing is in order to raise issues on the cutting of trees.

Development, he said, “should not be done at the expense of the environment.

Tolentino, however, said that the cutting of the trees is a must to achieve the master development plan of MacArthur, which has been receiving millions of pesos in allocation for widening and provision of line canals.

Initially, he said, trees along the road south of the DPWH office in Barangay Sindalan will be removed while they are waiting for the rest of the budget for the totality of the project.

“We will start cutting or earthballing trees where we would be already doing widening works. The rest of the trees will only be removed once we are ready to commence work in such areas,” Tolentino said.

As a condition for the removal of the trees, the DENR directed the DPWH to initiate tree-planting activities—replacing every fully-grown acacia tree with 30 tree saplings on designated areas. The seedlings of indigenous species shall be approximately one centimeter in diameter from the root collar and at least three feet in height.

The DENR has assigned areas of the FVR Megadike for tree planting activities.

Tolentino said logs or timber and derivable wood materials to be recovered from the cut trees shall be stockpiled in a common depository area identified by the community offices of the DENR for safekeeping, management and proper disposition.