GEN. TINIO, Nueva Ecija – Illegal loggers continue to operate in the boundaries of Nueva Ecija and Bulacan despite intensified government drive, environment officials say.
Joselito Blanco, community environment and natural officer for South Nueva Ecija, said on Thursday that some 4,500 board feet of hardwood of different species were recovered by combined personnel from the Philippine Army’s 56th Infantry Brigade, municipal police and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) here on Saturday but no owner has surfaced.
The forest products were recovered from a vacant area in Sitio Saudi, Barangay Pias of this municipality, Blanco said. The haul is pegged at P112,500.
He disclosed that illegal loggers reportedly cut trees on the mountain, mostly inside Doña Remedios Trinidad Watershed area and in adjacent San Miguel, Bulacan and transport them initially by floating it through Sumacbao River in a process called river logging.
Accomplices downstream will then take them for land transport in the guise of domestic use.
Blanco said that “illegal loggers are less willing to face enforcers thus abandoning lumber upon sensing authorities.”
This town has been identified as illegal logging hotbed because some villagers engage in cutting and transporting trees. They reportedly earn from financiers who deliver lumber to different parts of Central Luzon.
Anti-illegal logging operatives also said that some women and children would even stage the so-called “mob power” to prevent authorities from confiscating lumber in the past, a scheme that gave birth to a multi-agency task force called Task Force “Sagip Likas Yaman”. “Talagang haharapin ka nila,” an operative said.
Police record showed that operatives have discovered a total of 1,214 board feet of lumber amounting to P48,560 neatly stacked and apparently ready for pick up in nearby Sitio Saudi, Barangay Pias here last month.
On Feb. 13, a large volume of lumber was also intercepted by police authorities in Sitio Pantay, Barangay Rio Chico here.
Blanco said his office has filed administrative and criminal charges against some individuals for alleged illegal logging activities.
Recovered lumber could be used for the production of school desks, he said. “We will continue running against illegal loggers.”
Dr. Rafael Otic, provincial environment and natural resources officer, said he ordered the cutting into smaller pieces the recovered lumber instead of bringing them down in large sizes.
He also said that operatives are having a hard time in recovering abandoned forest products.
