It can grow but it will have seasonal transition abnormalities or a very shortened autumn-winter-spring transition of shedding and blooming its leaves. Also, the shedding season may not turn fiery red, too yellow/brown (depending on the type of maple), as it transitions so fast that you would barely notice it already shed its leaves.
This is based on my personal observation in Subic Bay area (the former naval base of Americans in the Philippines), where there are handful of deciduous trees planted enough to be noticed if you give attention to them. This is the only area in the Philippines where I saw a handful of them, and a very few in Clark. Maybe, the previous Americans who settled there tried to plant those deciduous trees in these areas. I didn’t see a Maple tree though but a few deciduous trees turn fiery red during odd times, or during a short period within november/december.
Most of the deciduous trees I observed in Subic do the transitional changes in a short period of time but follow the northern hemisphere seasonal changes (shed in november, no trees in december, blooming in january). Whilst a few follows the southern hemisphere seasonal changes (shed in may, no trees in june, blooming in august). I guess it depends on the type or variant of the deciduous tree or where their roots/buds/seeds originally came from.
When I was a student in Subic, there was this deciduous tree in our playground, wherein it sheds starting the second week of november, and then no leaves during the whole december, and then starts growing its leaves starting second week of january. By the month of March, it will be full green. It’s not colorful though during its shedding and blooming transitions. It only turns yellowish green and then you’ll be surprised it does not have leaves anymore after almost one month since the shedding colors are unnoticeable.
But definitely, in a tropical country like the Philippines, deciduous trees may grow and live long but you cannot expect them to grow concentratedly in an area (possible but very difficult and expensive to maintain), if you aim to market a park or a place with a lump of autumnal colourful trees.
In cold places of the Philippines (like Baguio, Sagada, or even Batanes (the only low-leveled place in the Philippines where you can feel four seasonal changes but not as extreme as the temperate areas), you won’t notice any deciduous trees or if there are in these places, they are a lot fewer than a handful of deciduous trees you can see in the freeport zones of Subic and Clark.
But if deciduous trees can grow and live long in Subic, they can possibly thrive better in Baguio, Sagada, or Batanes islands if maintained well. But there is no demand in these places to do that or to market a park/concentrated place with seasonal autumn trees. However, I heard that there are young cherry blossoms planted somewhere in Benguet (near Baguio), where they aim to market a concentrated park in this area to those Filipinos who are fan of Japanese cherry blossoms. After several years, we will be able to see if it will be successful.
What I commonly see in cold areas of the Philippines are bunches of pine trees (hence, where the “Baguio” word was termed, a local word meaning “the city of pines”), where pine trees are very endemic in cold regions. In Subic and Clark, there are also Pine trees there but not as much as in Baguio. Maybe, the pine trees in Baguio are naturally endemic there, whilst the pine trees in Subic could have been only planted by Americans.
I heard and read from some blogs that some have successfully tried to grow an apple tree even in hot regions of the Philippines but of course, it didn’t fruit. Those in the cold regions I heard were able to grow some apples but very few. And most of them died after a few years of maturity and some didn’t even reach the maturity stage.
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