GEN. TINIO, Nueva Ecija – Efren, a father of four from this town, is an illegal logger since he was 15 years old. In fact, he said, he has been with a group that poached timber in different parts of Sierra Madre mountain range for 24 years now. He is 39.
Efren was among five people who were caught red handed by personnel from the municipal government with some 10,000 board feet of lumber at the waters of Minalungao National Park in Barangay Rio here on Thursday.
The lumber that were reportedly illegally cut somewhere in Barangay Ibuna, Dingalan, Aurora was transported to this town through the so-called water logging, which, according to Efren runs for a month.
The “suspect,” whom Mayor Virgilio Bote would rather call a victim of poverty, said they usually borrow P5,000 to P8,000 each from an unnamed financier before going up to cut trees on the mountains.
He would leave the large portion of the amount to his family and a little for his personal needs, including food, on a three-month job.
“It takes us two months in cutting trees and sawing them and some one month in transporting them,” he said.
Each group is composed of 10 to 15 people, he said.
“Matinding hirap po ang aming dinaranas bago po namin makuha ‘yung presyo na nais naming makuha.
Talaga pong kasama po ang buhay namin na nakataya diyan,” he said.
“Alam po naming bawal pero wala po kaming magagawa at wala naman po kaming alam na ibang hanapbuhay,” he added.
With his meager income, he could only send his children, the eldest is nine years old, to a public elementary school but could not even provide them television or the simplest entertainment gadgets.
“Halos pangkain lang po namin ang kinikita,” he said.
Bote, said illegal logging activities by at least 600 families from different villages in his town have been thriving for over two decades. The illicit activity which largely benefitted unscrupulous businessmen, he said, used to be concentrated along forest areas in the locality.
“Nung nag-umpisa yan sakop ng aming bayan pero ngayon tatlong probinsiya na – Aurora, Quezon at saka Bulacan,” the mayor said.
The fight against illegal logging, he said, has also been a tough job for both the local government officials and other agencies, including the military, due to humanitarian consideration.
“Pag sa itaas mo hinuli, hindi mo rin maibababa. Kaya diyan mo na lang huhulihin sa malapit,” Bote said.
“Pero pag diyan mo naman hinuli, isang buwan at kalahating pinaghirapan ng mahirap, ano naman ang gagawin mo?” he said.
The fight against the illegal logging was intensified as a multi-sectoral forest protection committee (MFPC) formed recently upon initiative of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Office in Central Luzon.
Maximo Dichoso, DENR regional executive director, said this town is an “illegal logging hot spot,” along with Gabaldon, Nueva Ecija.
The town’s parish priest, Rev. Orlan Valino, was named MFPC chair. The membership is composed of representatives from the DENR, municipal government, non-government organizations, police and the military.
Dichoso said the MFPC was formed in accordance with the Department Administrative Order No. 41, s-91 as amended by DAO No. 96-14.
Dichoso noted that more than 82 percent or 55.982.40 hectares of this town’s 68,229.29 hectares land area is “forest, hills and other pasture land.”
“The forest therefore should be an asset of Gen. Tinio,” he said. He offered the agency’s assistance in creating a land use plan.
Bote acknowledged that the areas being affected by the present illegal logging activities are same areas that add up water supply to Angat Dam, the impounding area for water for Metro Manila people.
“Ito mismo yung pinaka-Sierra Madre na pinakaugat na pinaggalingan ng tubig ng Angat (dam) at ‘yung remaining na source ng tubig para sa Metro Manila itong bayan namin,” Bote said.
He warned of an impending disaster: “Pag ito hindi pa nagawan ng paraan nakakatakot probably in ten top fifteen years.”
Asked what would happen, Bote said: “Definitely big destruction.” “Pati ang Angat Dam na ‘yan mawawala, masasara na ‘yan,” he said.
The best and immediate solution, the mayor said, is to cover families engaged in illegal logging operations by the government’s conditional cash transfer program or Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.
“Nagbago ang buhay nung mga nabigyan na mga mahihirap talaga,” he said. If P1,300 monthly allowance would change the lives of beneficiaries, he said, this would work with illegal loggers, too.
Such program, according to Bote, would be complemented with National Greening Program. Dichoso, he said, pledged to contract 270 hectares for reforestation in the municipality.
Illegal loggers are identified though a series of meetings held with them, he claimed.
Efren said he is willing to stop his trade should he be given alternative livelihood. “Ito ang natutunan ko mula ng bata pa ako, ayokong ito pa rin ang puntahan ng mga anak ko,” Efren said.
