2 more DENR men face probe for illegal logging
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 05:34:00 03/17/2008
LUCENA CITY—Two more employees of the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro) in Real town in northern Quezon province will be investigated for alleged involvement in illegal logging after they were implicated by two workers of the agency.
This was learned from a source in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, who requested not to be named as he was not authorized to make the announcement.
This developed as Herminigildo Jocson, chief of the provincial DENR office, said he had already completed the initial investigation on the earlier reported involvement with illegal loggers of Manolo Delgado, verifying forest officer and Quirino Cadeliña, chief of the Forest Resources Utilization Unit, both of Cenro-Real.
Last month, the signatures of the two were found in “recycled” documents being used in the transport of illegally cut forest products.
Spurious
Jocson clarified that the reported documents were not “recycled” but outright spurious.
“They (Delgado and Cadeliña) were not authorized to sign such documents. It was an abuse of authority,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net).
Jocson said he recommended that the two be slapped with preventive suspension and that the DENR conduct formal investigation because of the seriousness of the charge.
He said he had yet to receive an order from the office of the DENR executive director for Southern Tagalog dismissing Cenro-Real chief Antonio Diwa from his position for command responsibility.
In a phone interview, Diwa said he was ready to face any investigating body to clear his name. He said he had nothing to do with the anomalies allegedly committed by his personnel.
Diwa described his more-than-three-year term as Cenro-Real chief as “full of problems.”
Campaign
“When I was assigned here several days after the calamity in 2004, no one was willing to accept the post. But I still accepted the job because I wanted to contribute to the protection and rehabilitation of Sierra Madre,” he said.
Fr. Pete Montallana, chair of Task Force Sierra Madre, said “corruption in the DENR cannot be stopped by simply removing or transferring personnel. We feel that the same corrupt personnel are just being reshuffled,” he said over the phone. Delfin T. Mallari Jr., Inquirer Southern Luzon
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