DEPARTMENT of Public Works and Highways-Western Visayas director Wenceslao Leano has agreed to the proposal of Shigemi Watanabe, director of the Organization for Industrial Spiritual and Cultural Advancement (Oisca) Bago Training Center, to save the trees along the Abuanan Road in Bago City.
Watanabe’s proposal was submitted on July 30 to the office of Bago City Mayor Nicolas Yulo.
In a meeting held Thursday, August 16, with Yulo, DPWH officials conveyed the favorable response of their regional director to the concerns raised by several concerned citizens led by Watanabe that the trees should be saved.
They arrived in this win-win solution after the series of meetings.
Watanabe said the trees should be part of urban development instead of a victim to it.
Watanabe cited urban planner and architect Felino Palapox Jr., saying that “petrol-rich Dubai even borrowed money just to invest in green infrastructure and import trees to make its cities beautiful. Singapore imports Acacia tree from the Philippines to line its roads. The value of trees to urban spaces is beyond valuable. Trees help bring down the temperature of concrete jungles, absorb air pollution and alleviate flooding. They beautify cities and contribute to higher quality of living of urban residents. Trees in road design need not compromise government standards for safe and wide roads.”
He also cited the joint manifesto of green groups like the Citizens’ Organization Concerned with Advocating Philippine Environmental Sustainability that rather than cut decades-old trees to widen the highways, the government should provide alternative solutions to traffic congestion such as diversion roads, widening of alignments that do not involve cutting of old trees within an island, providing expansion through outer lanes.
Furthermore, Watanabe and his group pleaded to the Provincial Government and responsible agencies to reconsider the cutting down of the trees for the said road widening project.
Earlier, DPWH has a pending application with DENR to cut 292 trees – 104 are acacia, 133 kamunsil, six Indian mango, 10 coconut and eight mahogany trees.
There were 104 fully grown acacia trees which bear the symbol of the Filipino-Japanese Friendship which was at risk.
Watanabe said that preserving trees would allow road development to take its way without compromising the ecological, cultural and heritage values. It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you think you can only do little.”
He added: “Let’s do what we can before it’s too late. Every tree, as much as every life, counts. At the end of the day, the goal of modern society should be centered towards sustainable development which includes preservation of our natural resources and protection of the environment we share with the rest of the ecosystem. We take the value of the borrowed legacy reserved for our next generations.”