You may have heard of the recent attempts to cut down our beloved trees all over Cebu. Personally, I don’t understand why this is happening. In school, we learn that trees are important.
Here are a few reasons trees are important:
Clean the air
Provide natural shade.
Prevent flooding.
Combat global warming.
There are plenty of benefits to having trees around.
So it puzzles me why we are hearing about so many trees being cut down all over Cebu. I’m happy to hear that there are people who are making an effort to stop this from happening.
“The two men climbed the trees and lashed themselves to the trunks around 9 p.m. just as Department of Public Works and Highways crews were about to start cutting down the trees. One of them was identified as Dondon Dimas of the Inter Mountaineering Society, while the other was Inoburan resident Lito Labore who lived just nearby.” – full story by the Freeman here.
Thankfully, we got a blow by blow breakdown from Rudy Alix. He was there to take pictures and provide commentary of what happened. I first stumbled upon this in a Facebook group called Movement for a Livable Cebu. The following breakdown below is from the Facebook album of Rudy Alix. Below are his words and photos.
Here’s exactly what happened:

8:48 – We inspected one tree supposedly in an “advanced state of decay”. We found it healthy and lush, but look at how they have strangled the roots.

Tressa, Louella, and Joy Martinez – frantically contacting RD Canlas of DPWH, RED Montejo of DENR, and Sec. Singson of DPWH, trying their best to have them order a stop to the “murder” of trees!

11:14 – Louella asks media to surround the climbers when they go down. They say “We’re not allowed to do that ma’am!”