THE Cebu City Government’s Parks and Playground Commission (CCPPC) and the contractor undertaking the road-concreting project on S. Osmeña Blvd. resumed earth-balling the remaining trees that stand on the center island.
WT Construction Inc. has been removing the trees since Wednesday under the supervision of CCPPC, said its administrator, Arlie Gesta.
“We are supervising the earth-balling activity to make sure that every procedure is followed,” he said.
Once all the trees are earth-balled, WT Construction is scheduled to finish the project by this month.
Replacement
Earlier this week, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) lifted the cease-and-desist order it issued against the removal of the trees after WT Construction came up with the 7,900 seedlings to replace the trees affected by the project.
As set by DENR, procedures on pruning and partial digging of the soil that surrounds the tree should be done first before the actual earth-balling.
In the last two days, the contractor has removed 14 trees near Radisson Blu Hotel towards the Cebu International Port. That brings the total to 27 trees that will be earth-balled in the area up to today, based on the CCPPC’s inventory.
However, four of the 27 trees died while waiting for the earth-balling activity to resume.
“Maybe because of the too much heat, wa na gyod ka antos ang mga trees mao nga namatay (that’s probably why the trees died),” Gesta said.
New home
Since the summer season started, CCPPC has been watering the trees for their survival.
There are also five trees on the portion of the boulevard fronting Pier 6 to Pier 4 that will be removed by next week.
Most of the remaining trees are fire trees, acacia, magtalisay, neem and lomboy.
Gesta said trees that have been removed were replanted in an area between the Veterans Monument and Magsaysay Monument inside the Plaza Independencia.
The remaining trees will be transferred to other parks like the newly opened Magellan’s Park and the park that will be constructed at the North Reclamation Area.