Students to SC: Stop tree cutting in Manila
Five college students on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to issue a temporary environmental protection order (Tepo) to stop the mass cutting of trees on Quirino Avenue in Manila for the Southern Access Link Expressway (SALEx) project.
Led by journalism student Joaquin Bautista and sustainability and environment student Elisha Zantua, the group also filed a petition for certiorari after the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 41 rejected their first petition for a Tepo, citing a technicality.
Named as respondents in the students’ petition were the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the SMC Southern Access Link Expressway Corp. and Manila Judge Rosalyn Loja.
Irreversible damage
“Environmental destruction is distinct from other forms of legal injury because it is frequently irreversible. The cutting down of over 300 remaining mature urban trees cannot be remedied by future financial damages or by the planting of saplings elsewhere,” the students said in their 21-page petition.
They also challenged a provision in Section 23 of Republic Act No. 11966, or the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) Code, which states that only the high tribunal can issue a Tepo.
The Manila judge had cited the provision when she dismissed the students’ first petition in June. Under the PPP Code, a Tepo or similar temporary or provisional reliefs or remedies issued by lower courts are considered “void and of no force and effect” with judges who violate the provision facing possible suspension.
“It appends the balance of power. Why is it that they can suspend a judge, when only the Supreme Court can discipline judges,” lawyer Army Padilla-Santos, who represents the students, said in an interview after the filing.
“The PPP code itself gives a full judicial shield over a PPP project that will cause reckless ecological modifications that are irreparable,” she added.
Bautista, meanwhile, urged the DENR and the SMC to immediately halt the tree cutting activities and reminded them of the public’s right to a balanced and healthful ecology, as stipulated in the Constitution.
Aside from Bautista and Zantua, the other student-petitioners are Benjamin Luis Francia, Paul Benedict Callorina and Hannah Eliza Marie Guerra.
“We will fight for this; this is not just for us but for future generations to come,” Zantua said.
On May 27, Environment Secretary Juan Miguel Cuna announced the temporary suspension of the tree-cutting activities on Quirino Avenue although by this time, over 200 trees out of the target of 600 had “already been processed.”
The DENR defended the tree cutting, saying that 50,700 tree seedlings would be planted as replacements.
SALEx is a proposed 40.62-kilometer expressway with four segments: the C3-R10 Extension, Shoreline Expressway, Quirino Extension and Buendia Extension. The Quirino Extension is designed to connect Skyway Stage 3 at the Quirino Interchange with the proposed Shoreline Expressway and Roxas Boulevard via an elevated roadway. —WITH A REPORT FROM FRANCES AGBAYANI
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