Thousands of netizens have indicated support for an online petition urging the Department of Public Works and Highways to spare hundreds of trees along Lacson and España in Manila that it plans to cut to make way for an underpass.
Around 300 to 400 trees are in the way of a planned underpass that the DPWH says will decongest traffic on the intersection of España and Lacson. The underpass can also double as a catch basin for flood water.
Kathryna de Bustos, who started a petition on Change.org, said, though, that “an underpass will bring nothing but more noise and pollution in the area, where several schools and universities are located. If there are no trees to filter out the air, what is in store for the people living, studying, and working in the area?”
She said the loss of the trees will mean more flooding, not less. “An underpass is not the answer to the traffic and floods,” she said.
Ritzanne Joy Castillo, who signed the online petition, said the DPWH should “think or weigh the consequence and effect of this project first.”
Another supporter, Kevin Kristoffer Rodriguez, said “what the government should (instead) address is the management of canals, provide trashcans at every corner or so that would be collected regularly.”
As of this post, the petition had 2,508 signatures.
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Photo: Howard the Duck
