We have much in common with trees

What's up with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources? Why is it only now that it is questioning the cutting of that huge Dakit Tree along M. Velez, St.? That tree was cut down months ago? If I recall, during Holy Week, I would pass by this road on my way to my Lenten retreat in Banawa and I would say to myself… "Finally, they cut the Dakit tree that was the real reason why the road widening was stopped in the first place. Call it the excuse of the Department of Public Works and Highways but now that the deed has been done, the DENR entered the picture? For what? To prove to us that it is incompetent?

Come now. No one stole that Dakit tree. CENRO foresters Raul Pasoc and Felimon Emblazado, Jr. apparently visited the area to determine who could be liable for the cutting of the tree. Again I'd like to know where were these CENRO people when they were cutting that tree last February? If indeed their job is to keep watch on those trees, then they too must be culpable because they could not prevent that tree from being cut down.

Again, I'd like to emphasize that I was still Cebu City Traffic Operations & Management chairman in the Year 2005 when we started this road widening project and whether you like it or not, that Dakit tree was right in the middle of the road. In fact back then, I was told that because many people say that the tree was "Gi tao-an" (spirits lived there) no Catholic would dare cut this tree and I felt that it was just another stupid excuse not to widen the road. But I do know that DPWH officials solve these problems by hiring Muslim workers to do the work.

So again, why is the DENR questioning this only now? Let me point out that we're not happy that certain trees have to be cut because in our youth, we were made to memorize or recite that famous poem by Joyce Kilmer entitled "Trees". For our reader's benefit, allow me to reprint this poem in the hope that they too would take care of our trees.

"Trees"

By Joyce Kilmer

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray'

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair'

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made for fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

I submit that I can only remember these stanzas, but you can easily Google this beautiful poem. But indeed, we were made to memorize this poem in grade school and I hope that the Department of Education continues to do so. After all, we truly believe in that last verse, "Only God can make a tree."

In fact that Native Americans (wrongly called by Hollywood as Indians) were nature lovers and lived like nomads. They only stayed in a place long enough for them to survive. But they left the place so that nature can regenerate. Later when they returned to that same place, they saw abundance in fruit, game fowl or deer and fishes in the stream. These Native Americans also believed that man was created from dust and therefore we have so much in common with the tree and nature. After all, we all live in Mother Earth.

But what disturbs me is that while DENR officials cry foul because of the removal of the Dakit tree in M. Velez Street, yet we learned that the DENR already gave the DPWH its nod to cut those beautiful hundred year old Acacia trees lining up the national road going to Carcar. I earnestly hope that my information is wrong. Thankfully the last time I passed Carcar a month ago, those trees that my maternal grandfather Capt. Valeriano J. Segura planted when he was the first district engineer for the Visayas and Mindanao when he constructed the circumferential road around Cebu.

Months ago we joined the chorus of people who care about the environment and pleaded with the DPWH and the DENR not to cut those Acacia trees and instead, put those trees in the middle of the road widening so they need not be taken down. Mind you, that stretch as you enter Carcar isn't a long one. It is easy enough for DPWH to plan this without cutting a single tree. So let's see if the DENR really cares for those trees!

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