DENR permit fails to quell uproar over Manila tree-cutting

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The DENR’s assurances that the tree-cutting in Manila is legally authorized fail to assuage the concerns of urban mobility advocates, landscape architects and environmentalists

MANILA, Philippines – Environmental groups remained unconvinced by government assurances that the cutting of mature trees along Manila’s Quirino Avenue for a toll road project complied with environmental regulations, warning that the loss of urban trees would worsen heat and flooding in the capital.

The Philippine Association of Landscape Architects said regulatory compliance “does not automatically equate to ecological sustainability or climate-responsive urban development.”

Caritas Philippines did not mince words and called the tree-cutting “an act of ecological violence” and a “direct assault on the poor.”

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) earlier clarified that San Miguel Corporation’s Southern Access Link Expressway Corporation has the necessary permit to cut trees along the western portion of Quirino Avenue to make way for its Southern Access Link Expressway (SALEX).

It said the project proponent is required to plant 50,700 replacement seedlings in Manila. As the uproar continued, the DENR doubled down, saying: “We assure the public that no tree is authorized for removal without strict legal basis, environmental safeguards, and long‑term rehabilitation requirements.”

The DENR also explained that the Berong Nickel Project in Palawan had permits for tree-cutting and was likewise required to plant replacement seedlings.

Beyond the legality, concerned groups raised concerns over the loss of ecosystem services – urban cooling and flood mitigation – provided by mature trees.

“While replacement planting is required under the DENR permit, saplings and newly planted trees cannot replicate the ecological performance, biomass capacity, and microclimatic benefits of established mature trees within the short to medium term,” the landscape architects said in their statement on Tuesday, May 26.

A dangerous precedent

Some are wary that the tree-cutting for SALEX sets a “dangerous precedent” for the future of Metro Manila.

Urban mobility advocates pointed out that the expressway should have acquired an environmental compliance certificate (ECC).

A project proponent obtains an ECC after an environmental impact assessment. This is required for what the government considers “environmentally critical projects,” including infrastructure projects and mining activities.

“A project of its magnitude, an expressway, with profound impacts on the local environment and the health of local residents should have been obliged to undergo the normal ECC process and scrutiny,” Robie Siy, convenor of Move as One Coalition, stated on Tuesday.

Mobility advocates and landscape architects shared the same concerns over what appears to them as a “prioritization of road expansion projects.”

Meanwhile, the Philippine Native Plants Conservation Society Incorporated has asked the DENR to heed the public outcry and halt the tree-cutting operations.

“We have experienced disaster after disaster and yet we have not learned a thing or two on how natural resources and the environment protects us from such devastating events,” it said.

On Tuesday, protesters gathered along Mabini Street to condemn the cutting of trees. Some hugged trees marked for cutting.

“The DENR is rubber-stamping projects of huge corporations and businesses,” Cathleen de Guzman of Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment said. – Rappler.com