ORANI, Bataan—Citizens here are opposing a plan to build a road traversing Bataan National Park.
“We are alarmed by the negative impact on the biodiversity that exist in the protected area,” resident Daniel Magsalin, one of the complainants, said in a letter to Department of Public Works and Highways First District Engineer Erlindo Flores in opposing the proposed 40-kilometer Orani-Morong Access Road.
“We are registering our great alarm on the negative effect on the protected area of the Bataan national forest,” Magsalin said, pointing out that Bataan National Park is the only remaining closed canopy dipterocarp forest in Central Luzon
“We see no benefit in constructing the road because there are already alternative highways going to Orani, Hermosa, Dinalupihan, Subic, and Morong via the SCTEX and the Pilar-Bagac-Morong highway in the south,” he added.
Magsalin asked whether the DPWH has already conducted an environmental impact study of the project. He also asked for a copy of the cost-benefit study done on the project
A Bataan government career official, who asked not to be named, told Manila Standard: “The Bataan National Park is the last environment frontier of the province. You destroy it, and you’re virtually destroying the whole province.”
Bataan First District Rep. Geraldine Roman is pushing the road project.