LEGAZPI CITY—Former Albay governor and incumbent second district Rep. Joey Salceda lambasted the Department of Public Works and Highways for cutting and uprooting trees for the massive road widening and concreting of national roads it started three years ago.
Assistant public works regional director Armando Estrella reported that road widening in Bicol was 30 percent complete so Salceda mourned the thousands of trees, many more than 50 years old, that were felled to make way for the road projects.
Dr. Arme Santos-Tan, a retired professor of the Bicol University, also lamented that public resistance against cutting of trees in roads seems to have subsided.
In 2013, a district engineer ordered the initial cutting of more than 30 old trees in the first district of Albay without the knowledge and consent from the Capitol. However, the electric posts remain, each more than a meter from the pedestrian road way.
Strong support from the church and local environmentalists for his quest against mining and the cutting of trees led him to order the provincial board to declare persona non grata then-Albay first district engineer Teodoro Castillo and file criminal and administrative charges for cutting more than 30 trees on the sides of the 10-kilometer route from Tabaco City to Malinao to Tiwi towns in the first district.
But Salceda withdrew the resolution against Castillo a few weeks later and aborted the filing of charges after the district engineer reportedly came to him and seek forgiveness and understanding saying as a mere district engineer he was only following order to clear the road for the road widening.
Early this year, said road widening and concreting was 30 percent complete and cutting of road trees continued in other areas.
Since Salceda’s hometown Polangui is the gateway to the provinces of Catanduanes, Masbate, Sorsogon and the Visayas region, motorists from Manila could only wonder at the sudden disappearance of old beautiful trees on the roads.
Former Albay Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Marcial Tuanqui complained of the rampant palay drying of residents and traders occupying both sides of the road shielded by big stones that pose danger to motorists.
Early last year, the 125-meter long Yawa Bridge from Legazpi poblacion to Barangay Rawis was expanded to four lanes, the first bridge to be widened in the region to ease traffic during rush hours.
When the road half a kilometer from the bridge leading to the first district was also widened and concreted and more than 100 old Agoho trees facing the regional center on the eastern side and the Aquinas University of Legazpi on the other side were marked “X” for demolition, the DPWH was stormed by protests from environmentalists, residents and students.
The DPWH then built the two-meter-deep covered line canal that effectively cut the major roots of the Agoho trees. When Typhoon “Nona” hit Albay and toppled the Agoho trees in Barangay Rawis, the DPWH was able to proceed with the road concreting.
Also last year, a Gregorian Mall project began on a 1000-square meter lot in the old Albay district once known as the Locsin Park. The site was leased by the city government.
The leasing of the Locsin Park by the city for the construction of the Gregorian mall caused friction between Salceda and Mayor Noel Rosal after the former governor resisted the conversion of the park to a mall.
Building the mall required uprooting of four old trees, so Salceda had the remaining five grown trees six years old and above transplanted to a government land in Legazpi where they are thriving.