The Acacia tree & gov’t bureaucracy
For our special presentation on our talk show “Straight from the Sky,” we will discuss a very important issue or question, “What is happening to the Aquino Regime?” It’s been four years since Pres. Benigno Aquino III took power in Malacañang Palace; although he was a “minority” president, the Filipino people were made to believe that his popularity had skyrocketed to 70%+ as if all of those people who didn’t vote for him suddenly changed their minds and embraced his presidency. This is sheer Goebbels type of propaganda.
Our special guest tonight is a young man who publicly admitted to me in this interview that he campaigned for Pres. Aquino and has since changed his mind when PNoy showed to the world that he wasn’t a capable leader when he bungled the Hong Kong hostage crisis. This young man is our dear friend and fellow Freeman columnist Mike Lopez who writes a column called “Pointillisms” and he’s got a mouthful to say about PNoy.
So watch this very interesting interview with Mike Lopez on SkyCable’s channel 61 at 8:00 tonight with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel and replays on MyTV’s channel 30 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 7:00AM and 9:00PM
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Last Friday noon, we were playing golf and we could see a huge black plume rise up over the horizon in a conflagration that struck Barangay Looc, Mandaue City. Then there was a smaller fire in Barangay Tisa, and then later at around 4:00PM there was another conflagration in Barangay San Roque which was visible from my office. If anyone took an aerial photo of Metro Cebu last Friday, we would have looked like Gaza City being bombarded by the Israelis.
But kidding aside, I was listening in on the car radio and heard Vice Mayor Edgar Labella being interviewed and he said it right that the heat last Friday was similar to the summer heat of Holy Week. So this is why we must take extra precaution in our homes. No doubt, it was a hectic day for our Fire Department and Emergency services. We just can’t afford to be careless especially if we live in tight neighborhoods.
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Last week, the Department of Public Works & Highways did what they’ve always wanted to do — cut those old Acacia trees that were planted during the time of my grandpa Capt. Valeriano Segura who was the First District Engineer for the Visayas and Mindanao. Yes, he planted those Acacia trees in order to beautify the roads that he constructed around Cebu and he was correct — this road has become some kind of a tourist destination.
Not many main or national roads are lined with Acacia trees. Last April, we rode our big bikes from Dipolog City to Ozamis City and the national road there was also tree-lined but with other tree varieties, although there were some Acacia trees that we saw there.
So who is at fault here? First, we pin the blame on DPWH road engineers who for so many years ago we warned them not to cut those trees and for the road widening, we asked them to do a bypass road so we could preserve those trees. Then we suggested that they widen only one side of the road so part of the Acacia trees would be in the middle of the road. They still did not listen to us. This is due to the fact that most of our DPWH officials are not from Cebu and do not care to preserve our cultural heritage of which those Acacia trees have become.
Then there’s the Department of Environment and Natural Resources officials whose job is supposedly to protect those trees. If you recall early this year, DENR still refused to cut that huge Dakit tree that stood on the roadside of M. Velez St., which is why the road widening there has taken nearly 9 years now. Frustrated, someone within the DPWH ordered the Dakit tree cut and it took the DENR officials three months to notice that the Dakit tree had disappeared! That’s proof of their incompetence!
At this point… I dare say that we need a systems change, perhaps into a Federal System of governance because if Cebu or at least if Central Visayas becomes Federal, we can put on a Federal Government Agency specifically tasked to do road infrastructure, whether it is opening new roads or widening old ones. Today we are mired or lost in this stupid bureaucracy between DPWH and DENR and just because one old Acacia tree fell down, they wanted to cut all the Acacia trees.
Lastly, I know that in the US they have a tree doctor. I don’t know if we have such a highly-specialized person available here in Cebu? If we don’t have one, I suggest we find one. Incidentally, this bureaucracy that we are having between DPWH and DENR will surface again when work starts on the Bus Rapid Transit project. That’s because the BRT is a DOTC-led project done on the national road, which is the turf of the DPWH.
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