ITOGON, Benguet – The municipal government is seeking the approval of the environment department to allow the municipality to retrieve the trees that are being cut along roads due to the implementation of road widening and road opening projects to be turned into coffins for residents who will pass away.
Mayor Bernard S. Waclin stated that once the environment department will grant this request, the municipal government will be hiring three carpenters who will make coffins from the wood that will be spared from the cut trees and these will be given out free to the residents who will pass away as part of the assistance of the local government to the grieving relatives.
He claimed that the cut trees from the road widening and road opening projects being implemented in the different parts of the municipality are just being dumped anywhere or washed down the river system which is a waste of resources, thus, the proposal of the local government to take custody of these cut trees for beneficial use.
The local chief executive added that the environment department will first conduct an inventory of the cut trees to ascertain the volume that will be turned over to the local government and the municipality in turn will make a report to the agency on the number of coffins made and the recipients of the same for purposes of transparency and accountability.
According to him, the local government is awaiting the decision of the environment department on the said proposal so that it can spare the cut trees that are being willfully dumped into the river systems that add up to the clogging of the waterways.
Waclin said that it will be the local government that will shoulder the expenses in the process of making the coffins as its counterpart in providing such benefits to the family members and relatives of residents who pass away.
The mayor expressed hope that the environment department will grant the request the soonest so that the local government can retrieve and spare the trees that are already being cut by the contractors of road widening and road opening projects for these to serve its purpose considering the number of people passing away.
Waclin stipulated that the giving out of the coffins will be for indigent residents who will pass away but if there will be sufficient supply of the same that will be made from the available wood, the coffins will be given out to all residents who will die in the future.
He claimed that the local government thought of making the said proposal to the environment department because local officials want to maximize the use of the wood from the cut trees instead of the same being dumped into the waterways by the ones implementing the road widening and road opening projects.
The request of the local government is now pending action with the Cordillera office of the environment department after the same was endorsed by the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO).
Itogon is one of the 5 first-class municipalities in the province and it relies on mining as the major source of income to sustain the delivery of basic services and implement various high impact development projects.