DENR probing own personnel for illegal logging in Surigao

In this file photo, a truck carrying mangkono lumber bound for Cagayan de Oro from Lianga, Surigao del Sur crashed in Butuan City in 2014, killing its driver. Road accidents involving trucks loaded with illegally cut trees and forest products are frequent in the Caraga region. Photo by Erwin M. Mascariñas

SAN FRANCISCO, AGUSAN DEL SUR — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is investigating the alleged complicity of its personnel in the illegal cutting of ironwood trees (locally known as mangkono) in the forests of Lianga town in Surigao del Sur province.

In a special order issued Feb. 13, which the Inquirer obtained recently, Victor Sabornido, officer in charge of DENR’s Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (Penro) in Surigao del Sur, formed a four-person team “to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation on the matter,” which was made public by Catholic priest Raymond Ambray of the Tandag diocese.

Sabornido ordered the team “to closely coordinate with the Diocese of Tandag” in the course of the probe. He gave the team until March 3 to submit its report.

Ambray had implicated Cliff Abrahan, chief of the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office in Lianga, for the unabated felling of mangkono trees inside the abandoned concession area of the defunct Lianga Bay Logging Co. after he allegedly turned a blind eye on the illegal activity that has been going on since November last year.

Ambray said locals in Lianga reported to the diocese the cutting of the mangkono trees with cutters guarded by armed men.

Ambray added that on Dec. 8 last year, Abrahan was seen with the illegal logging operators at a beach resort near an old seaport where three 10-wheeler trucks were transporting cut mangkono for loading into a waiting boat.

The cut trees are shipped to Legazpi City, according to Ambray.

Early this month, at a multi-stakeholders forum convened by the DENR in Cagayan de Oro City, Ambray raised the issue before top officials of the agency, including Secretary Antonia Loyzaga.

When interviewed by the Inquirer, Abrahan denied Ambray’s allegations saying the forest products loaded into the ship in Lianga were chopped lauan and yakal lumbers used as materials in building boats.

He said he could no longer do anything to confiscate the shipment of the forest products since these had been loaded on the boat and therefore already under the jurisdiction of the Philippine Coast Guard.

But Abrahan admitted that the illegal cutting and trading of mangkono is rampant in their area, but they are helpless to stop these as the forest products are transported at night with heavily armed men as escorts.

The CENRO disclosed several confiscations of illegally transported mangkono in the past months, including those in Surigao City, Cantilan in Surigao del Sur, and near Bayugan City.

Before the probe on Abrahan, many residents forwarded complaints to the DENR regional office about his alleged involvement in the illegal mangkono trade.

Mangkono (Xanthostemon verdugonianus) is a prized material for making various pieces of furniture. It is categorized in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List 2018 as “vulnerable” due to decreasing population.

The IUCN noted that at the border of Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur, “which is known for their ultramafic soil, the species grows copiously along the road like the bushy Santan,” but large trees of the species are now “becoming more scarce.”

IUCN estimated that over the last three generations, mangkono “has experienced a population reduction of between 30 and 49% due to felling of the species for timber and the clearance of the species habitat caused by mining activities.”

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