What are our priorities? Road safety, or trees?
For our special presentation on our talk show “Straight from the Sky”, we bring you a major focus on the tourism development of our country. I’m talking about farm tourism. By the way, there will be the 6th Farm Tourism Conference in Cebu City on November 7 at the Marco Polo Plaza. I first joined the Farm Tourism Conference in Tagaytay way back in 2016 to recognize the country’s foremost farm tourism pioneers, practitioners, developers, and advocates from both the private and government sectors. Unfortunately I could not push my advocacy further due to my kidney transplant a few months after the conference.
So tonight, we have with us no less than the guru of farm tourism and former Department of Tourism secretary Mina Gabor who is also the president of the International School of Sustainable Tourism. Actually, we taped this show a month ago, but I wanted to show it at this time so that the people who may be interested in joining the Farm Tourism Conference will have an idea of what they are going to get in that conference. Call it perfect timing that the 6th Farm Tourism Conference will be done here in Cebu, which means people from the Visayas can easily join, not to mention the people from Mindanao.
So watch this great show on Farm Tourism on SkyCable’s channel 53 at 8 p.m. with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV’s channel 30 at 9 p.m. Monday and at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday.
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I submit that I too am against people or groups that cut down trees, however, we have to make a distinction on trees that are lined up on our roads and thus pose a safety hazard to our motorists. I can understand why lawyer and environmental professor Benjamin Cabrido Jr. has asked the Court of Appeals (CA) in Cebu City to direct the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to cease and desist from implementing all tree-cutting permits nationwide and to stop the ongoing cutting, removal, or pruning operations in the country.
Professor Cabrido filed a seven-page petition for the issuance of a Writ of Kalikasan with urgent prayer for issuance of a Temporary Protection Order against the secretaries of DENR and DPWH. He said he is suing on behalf of all other persons whose constitutional right to a balanced and healthful ecology is violated or threatened of violation by the “unlawful nationwide cutting” of roadside trees.
While I do not disagree with Prof. Cabrido, however as a former chief of traffic in Cebu City, I always felt that trees alongside our roads always presented a grave danger to motorists, especially those jeepney drivers who often do not turn on their lights simply because they want to conserve their battery life. Remember how many netizens complained that when the DPWH widened the road beside the Iglesia ni Cristo they left a few trees standing along the road that they widened and thus caused undue concern to many motorists who felt endangered by those trees?
So now this case has been given to the CA for a decision. I rarely make suggestions to the CA, but in this case, they must consider the safety of motorists as a higher priority than saving trees. Come now, it is not that these trees are being cut in order to clear the forest, but to prevent future accidents from happening. At this point, we leave it to the discretion of the CA. What is far more important to them, human life or trees?
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Talking about safety, I heard that the Cebu-based Philippine Coastwise Shipping Association (PCSA), the country’s largest shipping group, has expressed its all-out support to the Maritime Safety Summit for Domestic Shipping organized recently by the Department of Transportation.
Formed only last June, PCSA committed its partnership with maritime transport officials in creating a culture of safer people, safer ships, and a cleaner environment. It sent the biggest delegation with 18 members coming from the Philippine RORO Operators Association, the Visayan Association of Ferry Boat and Coastwise Ship-owners Operators, and the United Trampers Association of the Philippines, which was themed “Creating a Culture of Safer People, Safer Ships, and Cleaner Environment.”
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