Isabela village chief caught red-handed with ‘hot’ logs

A village official of a town in Isabela province is in hot water after authorities found illegally cut lumber in his possession. Isabela anti-illegal logging task force team leader Dave Syquian said that Ilagan town’s Alinguigan village chairman Tony Gangan violated Presidential Decree 705 or the illegal logging law for keeping illegally sourced lumber. Gangan’s residence was raided on January 3, after reports reached task force officials that some 2,050 board feet of Narra flitches were being concealed inside the premises of his residence. Two weeks before the discovery, task force operatives intercepted two groups in separate incidents who were allegedly about to deliver contraband logs to Gangan’s residence. One group was led by one Ruben Siringan and the other by Rommel Zipagan, both residents of the province’s so-called logging town of San Mariano. The two, according to Syquian, are out of detention on bail and are facing illegal-logging charges. Syquian said that Gangan would be the second village chief in Isabela to be charged with the same since November last year. Millions of board feet of illegally cut lumber have been confiscated by the task force since it was reactivated last year with the help of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), but Syquian said the fight against environmental destruction would be far from over as long as government and elected officials continue to be in cahoots with the well funded illegal logging syndicates operating within the borders of Aurora and Isabela provinces. - Floro Taguinod/LBG, GMANews.TV