The Supreme Court has issued a temporary restraining order on the cutting of trees on Luneta Hill in Baguio City for the expansion of a mall there.
In an en banc resolution, the High Court stopped the cutting of 182 pine and alnus trees around SM City Baguio. The cutting had been earlier allowed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
SC spokesman Theodore Te said the TRO is effective immediately and until further orders from the Court.
Asked to comment on the resolution, SM Prime Holdings Inc. said that it “has yet to receive a copy of the order from the Supreme Court as reported in the news.”
The SMPH statement added: “Rest assured that SM will comply with the directive of the Court.”
In its resolution, the SC also required the DENR to explain its order allowing the tree cutting.
The SC granted petition filed by Cordillera Global Network (CGN) and residents questioning the DENR’s approval of the cutting of tree.
Last January, the mall reportedly decided to cut 60 of the 182 trees after obtaining a favorable ruling from the Court of Appeals Special Ninth Division the previous month.
In its ruling, the CA dismissed the petition of CGN questioning the Dec. 3, 2012 decision of the late Baguio Regional Trial Court Judge that allowed the mall to proceed with the tree cutting.
The appellate court agreed with the RTC’s conclusion that cutting the trees would bring “no hazardous effect on the health of the people of Baguio … because the removal [of the trees] will be compensated by the green building (which (the mall) intends to put up), the 2,000 trees already planted in Busol watershed and 30,000 more trees that will be planted within the next three years (reckoning from 2012).”