LINGAYEN, Pangasinan, March 11 (PNA) — Former Pangasinan Fifth District Rep. Mark Cojuangco has admitted he was the one who initiated the widening of the Manila North Road (MNR) which is at present only a two-lane road but where some 60,000 vehicles pass daily.
The road widening, however, earned the ire of environmentalists and activists as the project is being pursued at the expense of decades-old trees planted on both shoulders of the MNR.
Speaking during the resumption of the inquiry on the massive cutting of decades-old trees in eastern Pangasinan before the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) on Monday, Cojuangco said one of the biggest things holding back economic development is inconvenience caused by daily waste of time as a result of narrow roads.
He said the MNR will be widened from two to four lanes at 20 meters between towns and six lanes or 30 meters within towns, thus the cutting of trees along its shoulders is necessary and imperative.
Further, tree cutting along the portion of MNR from Villasis to Rosales could not proceed as the 90-day cutting permit issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to the Department of Environment and Public Works and Highways (DPWH) already expired February 2 this year and has yet to be renewed.
When it was stopped, more than 70 percent of the 1,829 trees targeted to be cut, or some 1,200 trees, have already been felled on both shoulders of the MNR in Villasis, Urdaneta City, Binalonan, Pozorrubio and Sison.
Cojuangco admitted he was the one who initiated the road widening project and the major mover of government agencies in getting the permit to cut trees.
Widening of MNR was first done in central Urdaneta which had been widened into the standard 30 meters a few years ago, adding that this is being done in other parts of the MNR to turn the highway “into an enabler of development rather than a hindrance.”
He asked if the people are stuck in their cars and the cars are not moving, can the people still transact their business in Urdaneta?
With 60,000 and more vehicles traveling this route daily, the amount of time and in man hours which a widened MNR will save is massive, he added.
The intangible personal and economic effects of which over time will be incalculably positive and large. It will also greatly increase efficiency, lowering per vehicle fuel consumption to more competitive norms,” said Cojuangco.
Also, it will lower greatly per vehicle pollution levels to a point far exceeding and offsetting any imagined incremental carbon dioxide capture which the cut trees might provide, if at all, he added.
But under the conditions imposed by the DENR in granting the permit, every decades-old tree that would be cut, should be replaced by 100 tree seedlings.
Cojuangco said under the plan, some of the replacement trees will be planted outside the road right of way.
Emmanuel Diaz, fourth district highway engineer who applied for the tree cutting permit, said planting of tree seedlings will be done with the onset of the rainy season.
“Your honors, try as I may, there are no two ways about the fate of these trees. A four-lane highway at 3.35 meters per lane is already 13.4 meters. This is wide enough to require the removal of most of the trees,” said Cojuangco.
Cojuangco told the SP that the widening of the MNR is a national project and therefore under the concern of the district representative because it utilizes funds allocated under the general appropriations act.
Thus, it is the duty of the congressman to provide input as to what he considers the needs of his constituency as he sees it, he added, defending why he is backing up the highway widening project.
At the same time, he rejected the oppositors’ claim that in this issue it is the economy that is pitted against the environment, asserting that progress can happen side by side with the enhancement of the environment.
Cojuangco is not in conformity with the interpretation of the oppositors too that the “expiration” of the permit will mean that somehow the remaining trees are given the chance to be spared.
“My understanding of the word expiration is it is an administrative means to assure that the permit will not be abused and used for other trees over time. And that indeed, control over the process should be maintained. Reading in other meaning is arbitrary,” he added.
He also does not believe in the assertion that the trees are historical, calling on the oppositors to cite historical event that these trees were a witness to.
“May we know if certifications or documentation to said historical events are available to us, again with reference to the specific trees?”, he asked.
However, Pangasinan Historical and Cultural Commissioner Virginia Pasalo said during the liberation, the Americans took shelters in shades of robust Alipangpang trees in Pozorrubio before going north in pursuit of the Japanese who were retreating to Baguio and Bessang Pass.
She said the road widening is not only about trees but also properties where ancestral houses are located that may be encroached by the widened highway.
The oppositors, among them Fr. Robert Reyes, the running priest, said there is no need anymore for a wider MNR as the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEx) will soon be extended up to Rosario, La Union. (PNA)