Philippine environmental and community groups are denouncing what they call a destructive development model, enabled by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), that is stripping trees from Metro Manila’s streets to Palawan’s forests in the name of “progress.”
In Manila, environmental and urban mobility advocates condemned the mass cutting of mature trees along a major thoroughfare for a proposed elevated toll road network being developed by conglomerate San Miguel Corporation, part of a larger expressway system linking the metropolis to a new international airport and marketed as a way to ease traffic in one of Southeast Asia’s most congested cities.
This backlash intensified even after the environment department announced on Wednesday a temporary halt to tree‑cutting along Quirino Avenue for the Southern Access Link Expressway (SALEX), saying the pause was to allow further study amid mounting public outrage.
“If the DENR, the very institution that is mandated to protect the environment, normalises large-scale tree cutting and environmental exemptions for projects like SALEX, it becomes easier to justify similar destructive projects in other key biodiversity areas in the future,” said Jefferson Estela, founder and convenor of Ilog Pasiglahin, a multi-sectoral coalition pushing for sustainable, people-centric urban development.
Advocates stressed that the controversy goes beyond tree cutting alone. They questioned why the expressway project received only a certificate of non‑coverage, where it is not required to undergo full environmental impact assesment and does not need an environmental compliance certificate (ECC), typically required for major projects with significant environmental and public health impact.
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We should prioritise the commuter and the pedestrian as well as integrate tree preservation into transport planning, rather than treating them as afterthoughts.
Sali Kintanar, member, United Architects of the Philippines Diliman Chapter
“A project of this 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,” said Robie Siy, convenor of the Move As One Coalition, which advocates for more inclusive public transportation.
They underscored that urban trees are critical climate infrastructure as Filipinos endure worsening extreme heat intensified by El Niño and the broader climate crisis. Trees provide shade, absorb heat, reduce flooding, improve air quality, and help cool dense urban areas already suffering from the urban heat island effect.
“At the height of extreme heat and climate crisis, removing mature trees for elevated expressways is not development but climate greed,” Estela said.
Felled trees to give way to mining
DENR’s decisions on tree cutting are not confined to the Philippine capital. In Palawan, members of church groups and civil society organisations are protesting the issuance of special tree cutting and earthballing permits to mining companies, which they say will allow the removal of more than 200,000 trees on the island.
At least half of the trees slated for cutting have already been felled in nickel ore-rich municipalities like Brooke’s Point, Bataraza, and Aborlan, since the permits were issued ten years ago, according to Grizelda Mayo‑Anda, co-founder and executive director of the Environmental Legal Assistance Center (ELAC), a Palawan-based nonprofit which provides legal consultation communities to uphold their constitutional right to a healthful and balanced ecology.
The barge of Berong Nickel Corporation in Aborlan Palawan. The mining firm has a permit to cut or relocate about 70,000 trees, says the Environmental Legal Assistance Center. Image: ELAC
She described Palawan as an “earth island” whose unique, isolated biodiversity “once lost, cannot be replaced,” warning that mining‑linked deforestation causes permanent damage as forests are cleared and topsoil is stripped, such that the uppermost soil layer, rich in organic matter, nutrients, roots, seeds, fungi, and microorganisms that plants need to survive is removed.
The groups noted that the permits are being processed despite Palawan’s 50‑year mining moratorium ordinance, signed in March 2025.
The government has openly promoted mining, especially “transition minerals” like nickel and copper, as a key driver of economic recovery. The country’s development plan prioritses revitilising the mining sector, pointing to about nine million hectares of mineral-rich areas, of which under 3 per cent are currently covered by mining contracts.
Replanting not enough to restore biodiversity
The DENR, for its part, has defended the permits and insisted that tree‑cutting operations in both Manila and Palawan comply with environmental safeguards. In statements on the Berong Nickel Project and tree removal along Quirino Avenue, the agency said no tree is authorised for removal without a legal basis, environmental safeguards, and long‑term rehabilitation requirements.
It emphasised that cutting in Berong will be implemented in phases, with each phase accompanied by simultaneous planting, and that the project carries a mandatory replacement ratio of 100 indigenous seedlings for every tree authorised for cutting, equivalent to at least 2.6 million seedlings.
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Even if the so-called replanting or reforestation is done, it is not enough to restore the biodiversity and old growth forests.
Grizelda Mayo‑Anda, co-founder and executive director, Environmental Legal Assistance Center
These assurances draw on a 2012 DENR memorandum that sets uniform replacement ratios for cut or relocated trees, including a 1:100 replacement requirement for naturally growing trees affected by development projects.
However, Mayo‑Anda said the DENR has not identified or surveyed the old-growth forests and other natural forests, along with wildlife critical habitats, before allowing the permits which either allow for the cutting or relocation of mature trees.
“Even if the so-called replanting or reforestation is done, it is not enough to restore the biodiversity and old growth forests. There is no more topsoil as this has been removed so the mining companies can get the nickel ore,” she told Eco-Business.
Planting of 50,700 seedlings in Metro Manila was also promised by the DENR as compensation for the trees removed along Quirino Highway.
Sali Kintanar, member of the United Architects of the Philippines Diliman Chapter said cut trees cannot be replaced by seedling planting off-site because the place‑specific benefits of mature trees like deep roots, large canopies and established interactions with soil and wildlife will be lost.
“Sustainable urban and transport planning principles are often sidelined by implementors due to a historic car-centric bias. We should prioritise the commuter and the pedestrian as well as integrate tree preservation into transport planning, rather than treating them as afterthoughts,” she said.
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