Killer logs from Lanao Sur forests

DAVAO CITY—The logs that killed scores of people at the height of the Dec. 17 floods in Iligan City were illegally cut in the forests of Lanao del Sur where a Makati City-based logging firm operates, according to a task force investigating charges that logging was mainly to blame for the country’s worst disaster in recent years.

Task Force Sendong, a team created by acting Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said in its initial report on Tuesday that the logs were from the forests of Kapai and Tagoloan II towns in Lanao del Sur, where VicMar Development Corp., a Makati-based logging and plywood company, operates.

The Inquirer repeatedly tried but failed to reach VicMar officials on the company’s published phone number.

Hataman said he has not furnished VicMar with the copy of the report yet as it was only the initial finding of the task force. He also said he was not singling out the company.

“We needed to get more documents and the statements of three former DENR-ARMM secretaries,” he said.

The task force said it also was able to confirm so-called carabao logging in the area,

so-called because of the use of carabaos to haul illegal logs. The task force report, however, said “the effect of carabao logging is minimal compared to the large-scale logging by VicMar.”

The report said VicMar has been stockpiling timber in its log pond in the Kapai-Bayug river junction before processing these in its sawmill in Barangay Hinaplanon in Iligan City, which is along the Mandulog River.

“So after the logs are being stocked at the log pond, these logs will be naturally drifted away to Iligan City through the Mandulog River,” the task force said.

It said another logging company—Tagoloan Poblacion Farmer Multipurpose Cooperative—holds an Integrated Forest Management Agreement

(Ifma) in Tagoloan II but the report quoted DENR-ARMM as saying the firm has not started operating.

“Only VicMar has been in operation in the area since 1975,” the task force said.

VicMar, the task force said, got a Timber License Agreement  for 18,730 hectares of forests in Kapai and Tagoloan II on Nov. 27, 1975. It expired on June 30, 1997, but VicMar applied for an Ifma.

The Ifma, issued March 25, 1996, reduced VicMar’s area of operations to 6,795 hectares. It was issued under ex-ARMM Gov. Lininding Pangandaman and would expire on March 24, 2021.

On Jan. 29, 2009, VicMar was exempted from the logging ban under ex-ARMM Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan. With a report from Tito N. Fiel, Inquirer Mindanao