DENR to MMDA: Stop removing trees from Katipunan Avenue

MANILA, Philippines - Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Lito Atienza issued a cease and desist order against the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) yesterday to prevent it from cutting and balling more trees along Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City for its road-widening project.

Atienza said the MMDA failed to secure a permit for its tree-cutting activities, violating a provision of Presidential Decree 953, which penalizes unauthorized cutting, destruction, damaging, and injuring of trees, plants, and vegetation.

“I am deeply bothered by the report of tree cutting (in Katipunan Avenue). As a government office, the MMDA should have complied with environmental laws before embarking on such activities that have impact on the environment,” Atienza said.

The DENR found out that a total of 25 trees of various species on Katipunan Avenue were either cut or balled the other day and transplanted without a corresponding permit from the DENR-National Capital Region (NCR).

Those removed included 11 acacia trees, six mahogany trees, two narra trees, three banaba trees, a balete tree, a camachile tree, a campanella tree, and a fire tree.

DENR-NCR executive director Jose Andres Diaz said the system of removing the trees in the area by the MMDA was also “improperly done.”

“The fact that the root systems of the trees were exposed to their barest condition showed that the removal of the trees was not professionally done.  Further, the balling and transplant of some of the trees should have been coordinated with the DENR so we could have given technical assistance,” Diaz said.

DENR Environment Management Bureau (EMB) director Julian Amador said they are poised to call the MMDA’s attention to suspend its road-widening project on Katipunan Avenue “until such time that a plan to determine the impact of the project on the environment has been studied and evaluated.”

“The DENR is strictly regulating the cutting of trees in the country as it promotes massive reforestation in the midst of climate change and global warming. We are enforcing environmental laws to the fullest and any flagrant violation should never be condoned,” Atienza said.

“Whoever is responsible for the unauthorized tree cutting will be answerable in the green courts,” he added.

The MMDA resumed its clearing operations on Katipunan Avenue after the court denied a petition filed by an environmental group seeking to stop the agency from cutting down trees on the road.

But the environmental group, which filed the petition for a preliminary injunction against the MMDA operation before a Quezon City court, protested the MMDA’s move, as it claimed they were not informed that the court has already denied their petition.

The Concerned Citizens Against Pollution (COCAP) even said it was “highly irregular” that they did not receive a copy of the ruling issued by Regional Trial Court Judge Rosanna Fe Maglaya.

It can be recalled that six years ago, environmental groups criticized the MMDA for cutting down trees on Katipunan Avenue to pave the way for its road-widening project in a bid to improve traffic in the area.

The issue even reached Malacañang, with the officials of universities and colleges surrounding Katipunan Avenue – Ateneo de Manila University, Miriam College and University of the Philippines – subsequently managing to secure a moratorium on the MMDA’s clearing activities.

COCAP, however, was prompted to bring the matter to the court when MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando insisted on continuing their road clearing operations in Katipunan Avenue.

Quezon City RTC Judge Marlene Gonzales Sison of the QCRTC Branch 85 ordered the MMDA to stop “balling or cutting the trees until after the prayer for preliminary injunction has been resolved” in January 2004.