‘Hot logs’ worth P182,000 seized on Polillo island

LUCENA CITY – Authorities recovered freshly felled and illegally cut narra trees worth P182,000 in the underground market in Burdeos town on Polilio island in northern Quezon province on Friday.

Police report said local forest guards and policemen recovered nine abandoned narra logs measuring 365 board feet in Barangay (village) Aluyon around 3:30 p.m.

Authorities are investigating the identities of those behind the abandoned “hot logs.”

Last Jan. 29, a combined forest rangers, Army and Navy personnel arrested a suspected illegal logger and seized 137 narra flitches measuring 2,188 board feet in Barangay Caniwan also in Burdeos.

The island facing the Pacific Ocean is host to the towns of Polillo, Burdeos and Panukulan.

Hot logs from the island were being transported by boat to Mauban town which has long been known as a transshipment point for illegal forest products from Sierra Madre and Polillo island bound for Metro Manila and Southern Tagalog provinces./lzb