Forestry officials told to remain on Holy Week alert vs loggers

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) placed its field forestry officers on alert against illegal logging activities during the Holy Week. DENR Secretary Jose Atienza Jr., in giving the order, said timber poachers are likely to take advantage of the long break. “This order should put the burden on all my DENR field officers to be extra vigilant in as much as all concerned, from this point on, will be held accountable regardless of their jurisdictional clout. Concerned DENR officers in one region will be as answerable to me as those in another region. They will all be made liable for a shipment of undocumented timber that found its way to Manila from point ‘A’ passing through two or three adjoining regions undetected especially if the permits turn out to be spurious," Atienza said in an article on the DENR website (www.denr.gov.ph). The DENR said it has so far seized some P15 million worth of undocumented timber products in its summer offensive against illegal logging. It said the logs totalling 528,254 board feet were seized in illegal logging "hotspots" in Zamboanga del Sur in Agusan del Sur Mindanao and Nueva Ecija and La Union provinces in Luzon In Zamboanga del Sur, DENR Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer Rito Ordiz reported last March 26 the confiscation of some 42,400 board feet of abandoned falcata logs and two chainsaws at Barangay Dagum in Lakewood municipality. A week-long operation that started last March 23 along the Agusan River in the remote forested town of Esperanza in Agusan del Sur netted around 5,000 pieces of illegally felled “lauan" logs as these were being rafted downstream toward the river mouth in Butuan City. In Caraga, DENR Regional Executive Director Edilberto Buiser said scrupulous financiers even hired members of a cultural community, Higaonan, to tow the contraband hidden along the riverbanks in several tributaries of the 117-kilometer river and were intercepted at a chokepoint in Esperanza. Buiser noted the cooperation of Agusan del Sur Gov. Ma. Valentin Plaza and Caraga Conference for Peace and Development head Butuan Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos as “the key factors in the recent apprehension." The DENR operation was backed by operatives from the Agusan del Sur provincial government and the Regional Mobile Group of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Region 13. The seized logs, whose volume were initially placed at 508,800 board feet (1,200 cubic meters) are now impounded at the DENR compound in Butuan City. In La Union, 548 pieces of narra and teak flitches, measuring 8, 225 board feet, were apprehended aboard a 20-foot Isuzu container van at a checkpoint in Pugo town jointly manned by local DENR and PNP personnel last March 23. The van was opened only last March 27 after a search warrant was issued by the Municipal Trial Court of Tubao, La Union resulting in the discovery that the documents presented by the owner’s lawyer Ludwig Orille were spurious. DENR-Region I Regional Executive Director Corazon Davis said Orille offered P50,000 to the apprehending officers to drop the case against his client, identified as a certain Demetri Takio, and release the vehicle with its cargo. In Nueva Ecija, close to a P100,000 worth of abandoned lauan flitches, measuring 2,764 board feet, were apprehended last March 25 after DENR officers sought the help of soldiers from the 1st Scout Ranger Regiment of the Philippine Army based at Camp Tecson in San Miguel, Bulacan to scour the forested area of barangay Pias, a known hub of illegal logging activities in General Tinio. The operation was prompted by reports from concerned barangay residents that cutting activities were being undertaken within the forested area of their barangay which sits inside the Sierra Madre mountain range. The seized flitches are presently deposited at Camp Tecson under the custody of Captain Jasper Edward Obar. - GMANews.TV