CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- Illegal logging activities have resumed in Dingalan, a town in Aurora that was battered by landslides that killed more than 300 people and displaced nearly 1,000 families in November and December 2004, a leader of the Task Force Sierra Madre said on Friday.

Four 10-wheel trucks have been coming weekly since March to haul at least 65,000 board feet of wood from three lumberyards in Barangay Paltic, according to Fr. Pete Montallana, head of the TFSM-Dingalan chapter.

A yard is located at the Basco compound, another is beside a chapel, while the third is across the river where one contractor, identified as “Gatdula,” docked a ship.

Montallana said residents have suspected that the first yard is linked to Jackson Padiernos, a son of Mayor Zenaida Padiernos, because the compound’s owner is a friend of the mayor’s son. The TFSM, he said, has no evidence yet to validate the reports of the residents.

But Mayor Padiernos denied reports that her son is involved in illegal logging.

“Mamatay na ho sampu ng mga anak ko, hindi ho nag-i-illegal logging si Jackson (Death may fall on all my children but I swear Jackson is not involved in illegal logging),” Padiernos told the Inquirer in a telephone interview.

A check in the archives of the Central Luzon office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources showed that Jackson was convicted of illegal logging in early 2004 but an appeal to a higher court stopped his detention.

Montallana said TFSM volunteers saw “mini-sawmills” in those yards. These are borne on trucks that go around the villages.

Denials, denials

Volunteers reported seeing similar equipment in Barangays Dimanayat, Umiray and Ibuna. Trucks hauling logs have been passing those villages daily, it was learned.

Meliton Vicente Jr., community environment and natural resources officer in Dingalan, said there are “no lumber yards” in the town.

In a telephone interview, he said “no illegal logging activities” have been taking place in Dingalan since the disaster occurred in 2004.

Vicente said he would appear in a session of the municipal board on Tuesday to shed light on reports that illegal logging is on the rise again. The hearing is an offshoot of the investigation sought by Councilor Sherwin Taay.

Vicente said the sawmill at Gatdula’s yard was “legitimate” because it won in the bidding of the DENR’s Natural Resources Development Corp. to haul confiscated logs in Casiguran town.

Casiguran is located north 150 km north of Dingalan.

Montallana said log haulers have been using expired permits issued by the NRDC in early 2005 to retrieve and haul drifted, fallen and uprooted trees during the 2004 disasters.

Montallana also chided the DENR for not inviting the TFSM as a member of the Multi-Sectoral Forest Protection Committee in Dingalan.