CH probes uprooting of trees

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City government will conduct a separate investigation into the uprooting of 88 indigenous trees planted in the center island of Sergio Osmeña Boulevard.

Mayor Michael Rama ordered the investigation amid the announcement made by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources that it is filing a criminal complaint against the contractor.

City Legal Office chief Jerone Castillo said the issue was endorsed by the mayor to his office for investigation.

“We will conduct our own investigation on what really happened since this was already endorsed to us. We will take cognizance on this,” Castillo told reporters.

 â€œTechnically, na-shorten ang deadline sa completion sa project. He (Rama) requested the contractor to speed up things. Mao na akong gitan-aw ron, di ba kaha tungod aning pagdali-dali ngano nahitabo ni, naa bay supervision or as to how the process was done?” Castillo said.

According to Castillo, the city government is taking cognizance of the case pursuant to the provisions of the Local Government Code.

Castillo, however, said the city government will not stop DENR from doing its own investigation.

“We will not stop the DENR if they feel that it’s in their jurisdiction but kami sab we will conduct our own investigation kay serious man gud ang mga allegations kay naay mysterious disappearance of trees,” Castillo said, adding that the city is a party to the case since the area where the crime was committed is under the jurisdiction of the city government and the missing trees were property of the city. 

 Castillo said he will meet next week with the “involved parties,” including the WT Construction Inc., Department of Public Works and Highways, among others “to give them due opportunities to explain.”

CENRO-DENR is expected to file charges today against Engineer Adolfo Quiroga, WT consultant and other alleged culprits in the uprooting of trees without authorization from City Parks and Playground Commission and CENRO.

 The case was supposed to be filed yesterday but DENR-7 failed to complete all the needed affidavits, said information officer Eddie Llamedo.

  â€œWe are still finalizing the judicial affidavits after the review and evaluation by our chief legal division, Attorney Fernando Alberca, with some lawyers at DENR,” Llamedo said.

 â€œWe just iron out some details of the judicial affidavits to substantiate our complaint against the officers of WT Construction. We are waiting for the affidavits of our CENR officers,” Llamedo added.

DENR earlier asked the city government, through the City Command Center headed by Councilor David Tumulak, to release the CCTV footages along S.Osmeña Boulevard to substantiate the case.

 But Tumulak refused to provide the CCTV footages citing “security reasons.”  (FREEMAN)