More than 500 of 2,000 10-year-old caballero or fire trees, whose colorful blooms were a sight to behold in this postcard-pretty city, have been felled. And the only reminders of their once fiery red and sunburst orange crowns are ugly stumps, tree trunks and branches left to rot on the roadside.
In a statement, the Bantay Puerto Foundation, a community-based environmental watchdog, condemned the "senseless destruction" of the 10-year-old ornamental trees along the North Road and the main avenue leading to the city’s public market.
The group warned that the rest of the 1,500 ornamental trees are in danger of being cut down soon because of a permit issued by the local office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Antonio Romasanta, president of the Bantay Puerto Foundation, said city government and public works officials had claimed that the indiscriminate tree-cutting along the North Road "had to be undertaken to allow the construction of a two-lane road."
"It is a ridiculous and pathetic excuse because the North Road has been a two-lane road from way back," he said.
Romasanta added that hundreds of ornamental trees along the road leading to the new Puerto Princesa public market had also been felled.
He quoted a city official as saying that "the trees had to go because they provided too much cover and shade from the sun."