NO CUTTING OF TREES. Environment Secretary and Cebu Covid-19 response overseer Roy Cimatu concurs with IATF-EID deputy chief implementer Melquiades Feliciano as they visit the proposed grave site for deceased coronavirus patients on July 20. Cimatu on Tuesday (Aug. 4, 2020) ordered the regional office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to ensure that no trees will be cut in Sitios Baksan and Patay'ng Yuta in upland Barangay Sapangdaku and to make the proposed cemetery project environmentally sound. (Photo courtesy of IATF)
CEBU CITY – Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu on Tuesday ordered the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Central Visayas to ensure that no trees will be cut in the grave site for the deceased coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients here.
“I made some suggestions during our visit here to save the trees, (and) instead put the grave side by side with trees para hindi na kailangan magputol ng kahoy except sa may natumba puede maputol pero nakatayo puede ilagay yung magkatabi yung graves (so that no more cutting of trees except those that have fallen already those can be cut but those that are standing, the graves can be placed beside it),” Cimatu said during a virtual press briefing.
Cimatu, the designated overseer of Covid-19 government response in Cebu, cited some cemeteries abroad where graves are placed right next to trees which made those graveyards compliant with environmental requirements.
He said the design of the Covid-19 cemetery in Sitio Baksan and Patay’ng Yuta in the upland village of Sapangdaku here can jibe with nature and transform the area into a “biological park” similar to one that he saw abroad.
He also instructed the regional office of the DENR to ensure that graves will not cause pollution to the water basin in the area.
Sapangdaku, he said, has its own river that leads to the tributaries downstream.
“I am directing my regional director here to make sure that the cemetery (will) be compliant to the environment and make sure we have to protect the environment especially yung tubig na bumaba sa river dyan (the water that is going down the river),” he said.
Mayor Edgardo Labella said the Cebu City Council will pass an ordinance authorizing the construction of the Covid-19 cemetery in Sapangdaku.
Last month, Cimatu visited the site of the cemetery to ensure that the project “will meet the highest health and safety standards”.
The environment chief said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging and Infectious Diseases and the city government “have to ensure the development of roads leading to the site as well as the mango trees remain.
He said that “if the city can find a way to minimize the cutting of trees, the better".
The proposal to build a cemetery exclusively for Covid-19 fatalities aims to address the backlogs in the city’s crematoriums.
The move is a result of the proactive approach being adopted by the city’s Emergency Operations Center headed by Melquiades Feliciano. (PNA)
