Group protests cutting of trees for Los Baños road project

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna, Philippines  â€“ A group rallied here Wednesday to protest the cutting of trees along a road leading to Mt. Makiling and finally to the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) complex.

The cutting of the trees, mostly kapok and a few mahogany, along the Ecology Garden Road leading to the Boy Scouts of the Philippines (BSP) camping site was initiated by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) under its road-widening program.

By passing through the two-lane road, motorists will skirt the heavy traffic at the Los Baños Junction, especially during rush hours.

The project, which covers about 500 meters, is being undertaken by the DPWH purportedly to help ease the university town’s traffic problem which has been inconveniencing residents and those passing through the town over the past years.

The DPWH reportedly pushed through the project without obtaining a cutting permit from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

According to published reports, the DPWH requested for a cutting permit but the DENR failed to act on it immediately, prompting the DPWH to allow its contractor to proceed with the project on the basis of a cutting permit and certification issued by an official of Barangay Timugan which has jurisdiction over Ecology Garden Road.

Subsequently the DENR-Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office issued a halt order and warned the DPWH that those involved in the violation would be sanctioned. A DENR cutting permit is required before a tree is felled.

Those who took part in the Ecology Garden Road protest march told The STAR that more than 20 fully grown kapok and mahogany trees have been cut.

The protesters included school children, students, cyclists doing their summer sports rounds, civic leaders, and residents.

“We march to put a stop to this trend which in the end may turn out as self-defeating and thus placing in jeopardy the environmental quality the Makiling area is noted for,” they said in a public statement.

The issue has elicited various reactions from the Los Baños community.

“The issue is the traffic problem in Los Baños,” said Mayor Caesar Perez, as he lamented that various parties have overblown the issue. He added that the government spends millions of pesos just to manage the traffic in Los Baños.

The project is expected to ease the traffic problem as, with the road leading to the BSP area and finally to the UPLB complex widened, more motorists will take it instead of the Los Baños Junction.

Over the years, the town’s traffic problem has continued to worsen.

Many years back, according to Perez, only a few thousand vehicles were passing by Los Baños to their southeast destinations. Recently, there have been about 7,000 vehicles passing through the same four-lane road, he added.

Although the problem spawned by the project is between the DENR and DPWH, Los Baños has been inevitably dragged into it because it is the site of the conflict.

The problem has also brought to the fore issues on forestry laws and policies.

In one meeting, a forestry scientist said kapok and mahogany are not in the list of premium tree species prohibited from being cut or harvested in private and public lands.

Premium hardwood species, it was elaborated, refer to narra, molave, dao, kamagong, ipil, acacia, akle, apanit, banuyo, batikuling, betis, bolong-teta, kalantas, lanete, lumbayao, sangilo, supa, tindalo, manggis, and teak.