LAST WEEK, on my way to Mabalacat, trying very hard to understand the logic behind the price for a more progressive community that entailed the death of the landmark acacia trees along the highway, I cried. As I was seated in front beside the jeepney driver, I was gritting my teeth and cursing under my breath as the transport weaved ever so slowly beside the mangled, mutilated, sawed off trunks, limbs of the old acacia trees. It felt like multiple rape; it looked as if mother earth's bowels
turned upside down, her brawny legs spread-eagle, as she let out a soundless scream to heaven: Why?
In July 2003, an initial move to "kill" the acacia and camatchile trees in Mabiga was stopped. The late Ody Fabian and other advocates from the local papers followed through with a series of dialogues and protests. I was able to record most of the dialogues for the K(apaligiran) segment of my radio program over 792 khz AM. In our first formal dialogue with DPWH, I quoted in my presentation R. Ehrlich (writing in 1949): "There is one thing of which you can be absolutely certain: If things go on as they are, one day, the sun will rise on a world without trees. That day is sooner than you think."
What we value and protect, not only for ourselves but for the children, reveal our true nature and the values we live by.
Take the air we breathe. Wherever we are at a given time–in school, at a hospital, in resettlement sites, in subdivisions, at business establishments (all heavily populated areas)–we benefit from the enormous volume of oxygen given off by trees. Next think of the upsurge in the amount of carbon monoxide detected everywhere nowadays. Think further about the effect of the degradation of the air, the water supply as well, on the habitat of birds and insects, and underground creatures that all play a part in the essential biological chain from which we draw our means of survival.
From the original 27 acacia trees surveyed in the area in 2003, the number (along with other tree species introduced since) rose to 71. In March 2005, an environmental compliance certificate for a proposed road-widening project along the Mabiga-Camatchile stretch of MacArthur Highway in Mabalacat was issued. Subsequently, certifications of no objection for the cutting of trees affected by the project of DPWH were issued by the barangay chairmen of Mabiga, on November 16, 2006, and Camatchile, on November 16, 2006.
The affected trees by the road-widening would be 71 forest and fruitbearing trees with 22 cms diameter at breast height (dbh) and above, with a total volume of 48.294 cu.m. By DENR conditions subject to existing forestry laws, rules and regulations, only the identified/inventoried 71 various tree species were to be cut. Prior to the conduct of tree-cutting, the DPWH was tasked to first replace the ill-fated trees with mahogany or narra seedlings not less than 5 feet numbering 2,810 delivered to the DENR Regional nursery.
To the ordinary folk daily commuting through Mabiga, the unheard question remains: How do you compensate for the life-sustaining and balancing oxygen derived from the 71 trees removed from the vicinity?
The air we breathe daily cannot be substituted immediately no matter how many seedlings are turned over to the DENR nursery. The vicinity where the 71 trees were eliminated is plied constantly by thousands of carbon monoxide-emitting cars, trucks, buses, jeepneys, tricycles, and other vehicle types. Within and around the area a carbon monoxide-laden air floats freely that is breathed by residents (many are children), commuters, and motorists. Remember that 71 trees there have once long served as natural screen and absorbers of volumes of daily vehicular poison gases spewed compounding upon human exhalation.
I have learned that on an average day it takes 10 trees to produce oxygen to burn 3.7 liters of gasoline. A single half-century old tree in the urban area is estimated to be worth over 1.5 million pesos. Any grade school student who knows his math can calculate the millions of pesos the 71 trees are worth. How do we reckon in peso terms the decimation of 71 trees in ratio to the impact on the environment or the loss of a landmark and a cultural heritage?
Now that the summer heat is upon us, imagine what it will be like to drive or commute on that cherished, once tree-lined, stretch of MacArthur Highway without a single roadside tree. We may find out in real-time sooner than we can blink.
Publish your comments...
