MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/27 April) – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources ordered on Wednesday a stop to the cutting of about 600 trees along the path of the 69-kilovolt transmission lines of the Bukidnon Second Electric Cooperative (Buseco), Felix Mirasol Jr., DENR provincial officer, told radio station dxDB Thursday.
Mirasol said the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office in Manolo Fortich town did not give any permit for the cutting of the trees along the national highway.
Provincial board member Jay Albarece, a resident of Manolo Fortich, spoke against the cutting by Buseco’s contractor at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan Wednesday prompting the DENR to issue the order.
Buseco has contracted a Manila-based company to install the sub-transmission lines. But Albarece said there must be another way of doing it.
“We will not get in the way of the project, we just want to ask them how they can continue it without cutting the trees,” he told MindaNews.
Albarece said an official from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)-3rd Engineering District) told the provincial board Wednesday Buseco allegedly obtained a certification authorizing the cutting, and a certification that the local government from the barangay to the province did not object to it.
He showed pictures of the cutting, which started last week, in various points of the highway along Dalirig, Maluko, and BLISS near the poblacion area.
The provincial board summoned representatives from Buseco, DPWH, and DENR to the session next week to shed light on the matter. (Walter I. Balane/MindaNews)
