'We thought about not just the remaining trees that they intend to cut down but also the people of Manila who will be affected by this,' the petitioners say
MANILA, Philippines – Students are challenging before the Supreme Court the constitutionality of the provisions in the Public-Private Partnership Code that insulates PPP projects from temporary environmental protection orders (TEPO) and similar legal reliefs.
The petitioners are Joaquin Lorenzo Bautista, Elisha Marielle Zantua, Benjamin Luis Francia, Paul Benedict Carollina, Hanna Eliza Marie Guerra — the same five students who filed a petition before the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 41 in May to try to stop San Miguel Corporation’s tree-cutting activities for its Southern Access Link Expressway project through the issuance of a TEPO.
The court junked their petition, prompting them to go to the Supreme Court.
“When the Manila RTC denied our TEPO, we were ready to withdraw our application,” Joaquin Bautista, one of the petitioners in both cases, told Rappler. “We were ready to give up, but we thought about not just the remaining trees that they intend to cut down but also the people of Manila who will be affected by this.”
