Cops seize illegal forest wood, coconut lumber in Quezon

A file photo of illegally cut logs from Sierra Madre found abandoned in Quezon province. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

LUCENA CITY, Quezon City – Forest guards and police have seized a stack of abandoned illegal forest products and illegally cut coconut lumber in Quezon province, police said.

Senior Supt. Rhoderick Armamento, Quezon police provincial director, said the police anti-illegal logging unit in Real town accompanied by Rextiel Telan, a forest ranger of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, recovered 1,100 board feet of sawn hard wood found abandoned by illegal loggers in Barangay (village) Maigang around 10:30 p.m., Tuesday.

“Here in Quezon, one of the police focus is to protect the natural resources. May this serve as warning to illegal loggers,” Armamento said in a phone interview.

The forest products worth P27,500 in the underground market was illegally cut from the northern Quezon section of the Sierra Madre mountain ranges, police said.

In Padre Burgos town, policemen manning a checkpoint in Barangay Burgos intercepted more than 300 pieces of illegal coconut lumber aboard an Isuzu closed van being driven by Edwin Pusad around 9:30 p.m.

The suspect failed to produce documents from the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) giving him authority to cut and transport the coconut lumber measuring 1,830 board feet worth P20,000.  SFM/rga