DENR conducts inventory of trees

PILAR, Bataan – Mr. Raul H. Mamac, provincial environment and natural resources officer (PENRO) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) here yesterday bared that no specific number of hardwood trees are yet to be felled or earth balled, a systematic way of transferring a full-grown tree, to give way to the proposed P 3.8 billion road expansion project of the 57-kilometer Roman Superhighway.

Mamac explained that the DENR, at this stage is still conducting an inventory to determine the exact number of trees that would be affected by the improvement of the province’s main thoroughfare.

He said the on-going listing process of the Agency includes the identification of the alternative but ideal replanting sites for the uprooted trees consisting of narra, acacia, mahogany and eucalyptus species.

However, the two Bataan engineering districts of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) reported that the widening of the present four-lane expressway into six-lane would undeniably destroy some 5,000 trees.

In the first engineering district about 700 trees would be affected while in the second district, around 4,375 trees or a total of 5,075 trees.

Records show those trees were planted in the 1970’s as essential core of the environmental protection program which coincided with the establishment of the country’s first Export Processing Zone Authority (EPZA) in Mariveles town and the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant Project (BNPP) in Morong town.

Mamac said the expansion plan of the Roman Superhighway would hasten the economic growth of Bataan with President Rodrigo Roa Duterte‘s policy of dispersing industries from Metro Manila to the countryside.

With the national government’s strategy, Mamac said it would substantially be advantageous for Bataan which is on the verge of becoming a highly-industrialized destination with its existing seven ecozones.