25 truckloads of logs seized in Lanao

DAVAO CITY—At the motor pool of Tagum City, an activity not related whatsoever to vehicle maintenance is taking place: Logs confiscated outside the city limits are brought in to be made into school furniture.

The almost regular delivery of seized logs has led Tagum Mayor Rey Uy to believe that the log ban ordered by President Aquino last year was not being strictly enforced. On Dec. 30, some 200 logs arrived at the motor pool from Loreto town in Agusan del Sur.

On Monday, soldiers under Task Force Ranao seized 25 truckloads of logs from three villages of Kapai in Lanao del Sur.

Some of the logs were found in seven sawmills being operated by a barangay official, said Brig. Gen. Daniel Lucero, the task force chief. He did not identify the barangay official.

Lucero described as “widespread” the illegal logging activities in Barangays Pindulunan, Dupao and Durotan. “You will take pity of the mountains if you see how large the volume is,” he told the Inquirer by phone.

The President issued Executive Order No. 23, imposing a moratorium on cutting and harvesting of timber in the country after floods and landslides spawned by typhoons devastated certain areas in the country, particularly in Eastern Visayas, Southern Luzon and

Caraga.

Under the order, wood processors will continue operating only if they can prove that they have legitimate sources of logs.

Mr. Aquino also ordered the creation of a task force to oversee the implementation of the moratorium.

Nearly a year after the executive order was issued, Uy said trees were still being cut, especially in the hinterlands of Caraga which shares border with Southern Mindanao. “This means there are still illegal loggers operating in the mountains,” he said.

Uy challenged the Anti-Illegal Logging Task Force of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to strengthen the implementation of the logging ban.

“The law should be properly implemented, both in determining the sources of the logs and in fielding personnel along the roads where the hot logs are being transported,” Uy said.

The renewed antilogging drive in Lanao del Sur is part of the campaign launched by the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) following the devastating flood that swept through Iligan City on Dec. 17.  Many of those who died were crushed by logs carried by strong current.

Documents obtained by the Inquirer showed that government officials had ruled that the log ban ordered by the President did not cover those earlier cut in the

ARMM.

‘Guidelines do not cover ARMM’

In a letter to then Regional Environment Secretary Usman Sarangani, Environment Undersecretary Ernesto Adobo said the national “jurisdiction as well as our existing guidelines (of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources) with regard to the implementation of EO (Executive Order) No. 23 do not cover the (ARMM).”

Adobo said the ARMM had to come up with its own guidelines and implementing rules and regulations of EO 23. A total log ban in the region was already in effect then.

There are no immediately available data on the volume of logs confiscated and turned over to the Tagum City government since the log ban was imposed. But Uy said that since the city government started its school desk and chair program in 2005, at least 3,000 logs, mostly from Caraga areas, had been turned over by the DENR.

The mayor said that while he was impressed by the recent confiscation of the task force, he was certain that only a “few men from DENR are involved in this illegal practice.”

As early as November last year, Uy said he challenged the DENR to clear its ranks of corrupt employees and officials.

Reports from Allan Nawal, Frinston Lim, Julie S. Alipala and Nash B. Maulana, Inquirer Mindanao