LUCENA CITY –– Police arrested three suspected illegal loggers and seized about 300 board feet of freshly sawn hardwood lumber in General Nakar town in Quezon province on Monday, police said.
Anti-illegal logging operatives caught Celestino Paquita and Martin Aveno while in possession of undocumented 170 board feet of lumber along the bank of the Agos river in Barangay Batangan around 10:30 p.m., said a report from Colonel Audie Madrideo, Quezon police director.
An hour later, the police team also arrested Marlon Uratorio with 130 board feet of newly sawn lumber in Barangay Maigang.
Police said the seized illegal lumber was worth P11,000 in the underground market.
Hot logs and timber flitches are being hauled down from the Sierra Madre mountain ranges via the Agos river.
The illegal forest products are eventually intercepted down the river by hired workers of illegal logging syndicates.
The seized forest products believed to have been illegally cut from the northern Quezon section of the Sierra Madre were brought to the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office in Real town for disposition. /lzb