LUCENA CITY, Philippines -- Using a borrowed mobile phone, a tribal leader in Sierra Madre in northern Quezon asked for media’s help to stop the renewed illegal logging operation in the mountain ranges.

On Monday evening, Eric Avellaneda, vice chairman of mountain tribe association called “Adhikain ng mga Grupong Taong Katutubo na Nagtatanggol” (Agta), sent a text message to the Philippine Daily Inquirer and reported that more than 30 chainsaws were sneaked into the mountain and were now being used by unidentified groups in their renewed unlawful cutting of trees.

In a follow-up phone interview, Avellaneda said he just borrowed the mobile phone from a lowlander to contact the media to ask for help to stop the illegal activities.

“The media is our only hope to stop and prevent the further destruction of Sierra Madre. Illegal logging stops every time it was reported in the media,” he said in Filipino.

Avellaneda said the illegal loggers were cutting more than 60 trees of hardwood species per day in the mountain villages of General Nakar, particularly in Barangay (village) Maligaya.

He said the felled logs were being transported out of the Sierra Madre by floating them downstream via Umiray River, and would eventually land on the coastline of General Nakar. The logs are later pulled by boats towards Dinggalan, Aurora and Dinahican village in Infanta, Quezon.

Some of the logs also exit the mountain through the backdoor leading to Tanay, Rizal, Avellaneda said.

The tribal leader said the groups of illegal loggers and their “agents” originated from Aurora province, Tanay and Infanta. The “agents” handles the business transaction to prospective buyers of hot logs and flitches.

Avellaneda said the forest guards from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) assigned in the area were not doing anything to stop the rape of Sierra Madre.

“[Are] they in cahoots with the illegal loggers because they were simply closing their eyes?” Avellaneda said.

When contacted through his mobile phone, Antonio Diwa, community environment and natural resources officer based in Real, Quezon, vehemently denied that his office was in connivance with illegal loggers for not doing anything to stop the unlawful forest activities.

“On the contrary, we are doing everything to protect the environment despite our limited resources. The accusation was unfair,” he said.

Diwa said he would immediately dispatch a group of forest rangers to check on the veracity of the report.

In his New Year’s message, Environment Secretary Joselito Atienza admitted that corrupt DENR men were behind the massive deforestation in the country. He vowed to establish a “corruption-free and transparent” DENR.

Father Pete Montallana, chairman of Task Force Sierra Madre, pointed out that connivance between DENR officials and employees and logging syndicates was a major factor in the continued destruction of the mountain.

Bishop Rolando Tria Tirona, head of the Prelature of Infanta, also blamed the DENR for the continued destruction of Sierra Madre.

At least three DENR-Quezon chiefs have been fired due to failure to stop logging in Sierra Madre.

Montallana predicted that 2008 will bring no end to the continuous logging in Sierra Madre. “And it is now starting to happen,” he told the Inquirer over the phone.

Lawyer Asis Perez, executive director of the Tanggol Kalikasan (TK), a public interest environmental legal defense center, urged the authorities to conduct continued arrest and detention of suspected forest criminals and their cohorts in government bureaucracy to stop illegal logging activities.

“Any government plans to stop environmental destruction should be ready to adopt the hard-approach strategy,” he said.

Last week, Quezon police operatives seized 76 pieces of illegally cut red lauan flitches worth P1.1 million in the coastal town of Plaridel along Lamon Bay in the province’s fourth district.

Authorities believed that the forest products were unlawfully cut in the Sierra Madre.

The Supreme Court created 117 “green courts” across the country to handle environmental crimes. At least 45 of the new courts were designated as “forestry courts.”