I read a report from The Philippine STAR last Monday where it blared "Palace Backs 1-Week LGU Approval for Telco Infra." Indeed, the bureaucracy with our LGUs in approving a cellphone cellsite has been identified as one of the major causes why our Internet is very slow, and that this is due to crowding with our cellsites. In short if we had more cellsites, it would ease up the congestion in the air lanes.
I have heard many horror stories where LGU officials make it difficult for telcos to get their cellsites approved and the worst is when residents are convinced cellsites caused cancer and demand that those cellsites near their barangays be removed, thus causing more congestion in their respective areas. But then while Malacañang Palace is backing this move the question is how long before they can make this happen?
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Yesterday's headline in The FREEMAN blared that the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) would affect some 2,166 trees in 21 barangays in Cebu City. The trees that will be affected include 665 narra trees, 486 Indian trees, 203 mahogany trees, 197 ipil-ipil trees, and 471 fire trees.
The P10.6-billion BRT project is supposed to address the worsening traffic situation in the city. BRT project manager Rafael Christopher Yap has informed the 21 barangays and other stakeholders that there will be a public hearing on May 17 at City Hall's social hall to discuss the environmental impact of the BRT.
As expected, my good friend, Gloria Estenzo-Ramos, co-founder of the Philippine Earth Justice Center was opposed to the cutting of these trees saying: "We never learn, don't we? Cebu, with its less than 1 percent forest cover, would still have the heart to destroy the trees." While I have been supportive of the advocacy of Atty. Ramos, when it comes to traffic, I'm against having trees alongside our roads for the simple reason that Cebu is in the path of many typhoons and when we get hit by typhoons, those trees (including power or telephone lines) fall down into the roadway and block emergency or rescue vehicles from performing their respective missions. We saw this happen during super typhoon "Ruping" and many other typhoons that struck Cebu.
As these are a lot of trees that would be affected in the 23-kilometer route for the BRT, one solution is for the City of Cebu to plant double or triple this number that they would uproot from our sidewalks. As former councilor Ma. Nida Cabrera, the current administration's point person on environment matters, reported to The FREEMAN: "The trees that need to be moved will be transferred to open spaces like parks or riverbanks. These will be moved through the process called earthballing in which the roots will remain protected by soil in the form of a ball to ensure the trees will not die in the process." Of course Cebu City plans to plant thousands more fruit-bearing trees for good measure.
Too often, our environmentalists only look at one aspect in the development of our city. A case in point was that huge (I'm not sure if it was an acacia or ipil-ipil tree) tree along M. Velez St. which when they widened that road, it took the Department of Public Works and Highways a decade to cut because of environmental concerns. The bottleneck along M. Velez St. caused so much traffic congestion, which I'm sure, was just as detrimental to our air quality than keeping one solitary tree from being removed.
While trees do not only give shade to our sidewalks, however the oxygen they produce is vital to all living things. However the BRT has also been designed to remove the jeepneys from this 23-kilometer route, which should also mean cleaner air not just for the pedestrians, but also for commuters taking the BRT. I fully support this project and remove (and transfer) these trees from the BRT route and make Cebu City achieve healthier and cleaner air quality.
While the BRT route will displace all the jeepneys plying this route, they will be moved to other routes rather than be mothballed permanently. This means, having the BRT running would not really help in improving the air quality in Cebu City.