BAGUIO CITY – The city government is conducting a preliminary investigation on the controversial cutting of the trunk of two matured agoho trees at the People’s Park last November.
Mayor Mauricio Domogan recently created an ad hoc fact-finding committee to conduct the initial probe to determine whether the employees involved in the incident are liable to administrative charges.
The three-man committee chaired by community affairs officer III Michelle Agbuya was given 20 days to undertake the probe and hearings and to submit its findings and recommendations on the incident.
In his Administrative Order No. 189 series of 2016 issued last Dec. 23, the mayor said the initial investigation is needed to determine the existence of a prima facie case against three city environment and parks management office (CEPMO) employees involved in the incident.
He said the decision was based on the letter of CEPMO head Cordelia Lacsamana who recommended the filing of administrative charges against the said employees for “alleged defiance of legal and moral order.”
“Upon review of the documents submitted by Ms. Lacasamana, the undersigned believes that the acts committed by the above-named employees may constitute Gross Insubordination and Conduct Prejudicial to the Best Interest of the Service under Rule 10, Section 46 (B-7 and 8) of the Revised Rules on Administrative Cases in the Civil Service,” the mayor said.
The three employees last November defended their decision to trim the two trees into minimum branches as a measure to preserve and rejuvenate the said trees and to ensure public safety.
In their letter to the mayor and to Lacsamana, they said that upon inspection, they found that the trees’ root base as already loose and incapable of supporting a heavy top.
Seeing it as urgent and endangering public safety, they decided to severe the branches at that moment even as they coordinated with their office’s forestry division to work out the processing of the trimming permit but which was not immediately done as the officer in charge was at that moment attending a seminar.
They said the remaining trees in the area were not trimmed as they did not exhibit advanced center rot as the two other trees had.
In their letter, the CEPMO personnel apologized for acting without first securing the permit but they assured that the said lapse on their decisions will not happen again in the future.
The cutting earned criticisms from residents and even from the mayor who said he was shocked by the sight of the bald trees as he cannot recall signing a permit for such activity.
Lacsamana earlier said she only ordered her employees to shape the trees to accommodate Christmas decorations for the opening of the newly rehabilitated park and did not expect them to undertake the trimming without permission. ** Aileen P. Refuerzo
