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Manila: Church leaders and environment officials on Thursday supported a case against a park official for cutting down 29 age-old trees for a redevelopment plan to make the historic Manila Cathedral a new tourist destination, local papers said.
"That was really embarrassing. They should have been a little bit more cautious. Whatever their plan is, there must be a replacement of trees," Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales told the Inquirer.
Monsignor Nesor Cerbo, the rector of the Manila Cathedral, admitted having asked Anna Maria Harper, the head of the Intramuros Administration, to help develop Plaza Roma in front of the Manila Cathedral as a tourist destination.
Intramuros, a 64-hectare 17th century fortress, is surrounded by a two-metre thick and seven-metre high stone wall erected by Spanish rulers for their headquarters by the Manila Bay and beside Manila's Pasig River in the 1600s.
The seat of the Spanish colonial government in Manila is now a major tourist destination, subject to rules and regulations on cultural preservation.
"I suggested to Ms Harper that the trees in front of the cathedral be transferred so that its facade would be seen better by everyone. But I did not say that the trees should be cut," explained Cerbo. "There was a plan to plant 200 more trees in front of Manila Cathedral."
"On May 22, Ms Harper asked my office for approval for a landscaping project in front of the Manila Cathedral which involved 27 trees, 17 to be cut down and 10 to be replanted," Cora Davis, the executive director of the environment department's Manila office, told the Star.
"Since then, our office had not failed to show her people how 10 of the trees, which are considered premium, should be balled to preserve its roots," Davis said, adding the environment department gave Harper a go-ahead on August 5.
"Instead, the trees were ruthlessly cut down in violation of four of 10 rules set in the permit. Ms Harper's people cut 29 and not just the 27 trees covered by the permit," Davis said.
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