Stop killing EDSA trees, MMDA urged

The Philippine Bar Association (PBA) and the environmentalist group Mother Earth Foundation (MEF) are now asking the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to stop killing and uprooting trees along EDSA.

Both are denouncing the agency and its workers for allegedly decimating some 37 grown trees from White Plains Avenue to Boni Serrano Avenue fronting Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

Former president and current PBA committee on environment chairman Linda Jimeno said their group and the MEF are calling on the MMDA to immediately put an end to the killing of trees along EDSA.

According to her, global warming is already a problem and is "threatening our very existence as inhabitants of this planet."

"Pollution and the rising heat may be alleviated by the presence of these trees yet instead of planting thousands more, the MMDA is destroying them. The city is where we need them the most," Jimeno told The Star in an interview.

MEF chairman Sonia Mendoza said the MMDA is making it appear that the trees are being balled and not being killed outright.

"I took photos and I saw the pitiful state of the trees that were still standing," she said.

Mendoza noted that the trees’ branches and roots are cut off before they are finally uprooted "About five trees remain standing and if left alone will survive. I spoke to