MANILA, Philippines — Several students have filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking to stop the tree-cutting for the Southern Access Link Expressway (SALEx) project along Roxas Boulevard and Quirino Avenue.

The students — Joaquin Bautista, Elisha Zantua, Benjamin Francia, Paul Callorina and Hannah Guerra — filed the petition before the Supreme Court on Thursday, July 23, asking the court to issue a temporary environmental protection order (TEPO) against the cutting of trees.

Respondents to the petition include the SMC Southern Access Link Expressway Corp. (SMC), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and the judge of Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 41.

The students also asked the high court to declare unconstitutional Section 23 of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Code of the Philippines, which they claimed the Manila RTC used as the legal basis for denying the TEPO request in a petition they had filed before the court.

The case, however, is still pending before the RTC, and only the preliminary relief was denied, which the students raised in their petition before the high court.

The petition also seeks to nullify the RTC's resolution denying the TEPO, which cited Section 23 of the PPP Code.

The tree-cutting along Quirino Avenue and Roxas Boulevard is tied to the Southern SALEx project, which is intended to connect the Skyway to Roxas Boulevard in Manila. Reports say the DENR has issued permits for the tree-cutting.

The work drew strong public backlash due to the number of mature trees affected and concerns that some activities continued despite SMC's voluntary suspension of the project.