Over a thousand more acacia trees to be cut

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines – Proponents of the widening of the old MacArthur highway said yesterday at least a thousand more acacia and other trees along the road in this province will have to be felled until next year so as to complete the Pampanga segment of the project which is expected to further boost local investments.

Rene Romero, president of the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PamCham) and member of the Regional Development Council said that regardless of protests from the Save the Trees Coalition and other local environmental groups, the road widening project will push through as it already has all clearances and permits from the national and local governments.

Romero, as member of the RDC, was one of the initial proponents of the project initiated way back in 1995. He said, however, that only trees, mostly acacia, along a six-kilometer stretch of the MacArthur highway from Barangay San Nicolas to Barangay Saguing here are slated to be cut, as the Department of Public Works and Highways has funds only for the segment of the highway which is being widened from four to six lanes.

“Our agreement is that the DPWH cannot cut trees unless it already has funds for widening segments of the MacArthur highway,” he said, noting that the entire project already has clearances from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and permits from local governments traversed by the highway.

Romero said that despite continuing protests from the STC and other local environment groups, the road widening project will push through.

He said that the DPWH’s budget for widening the San Nicolas-Saguing stretch would come from a P441-million allocation, although he could not immediately say whether the fund is from the Road User’s Tax, a portion of which is being remitted by the regional office of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to the DPWH for the maintenance and upgrading of the MacArthur highway.

The annual remittances started way back in 1995 upon the recommendation of the RDC which found out that the LTO in Central Luzon raised from P900 million to P1 billion annually from RUT, he added.

Noting that the widening of the MacArthur highway was already finished in Bulacan, Romero said the portion of the highway in Pampanga toward the north is supposed to be completed by next year. “From Barangay Saguing, more than a thousand acacia trees will have to go up to Pampanga’s boundary with Bamban, Tarlac,” he said.

DPWH regional director Alfredo Tolentino could not be reached since Tuesday for comment on the road project which has again stirred protest actions from local environmentalists. “I enjoin environmentalists to take a second look at the project which will benefit more by paving the way for the entry of more investors in our province. Better road access leads to convergence and connectivity that can pave the way to job creation,” Romero said.