8,000 board feet of lumber seized in ARMM
COTABATO CITY—The seizure of some 8,000 board feet of lauan lumber at Polloc Port in Parang, Maguindanao province, on Wednesday only confirmed that illegal logging activities are continuing in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), a regional official said Friday.
Kahal Kedtag, secretary of the ARMM’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), said the lumber, loaded onto a 40-foot container van bound for Manila, could not have come from other areas but ARMM.
“It’s an indication there are still loggers who cut trees clandestinely in the region,” he said.
ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman said the cargo was consigned to a certain Arcilla in Manila. “There was no other information available on Arcilla, even cargo forwarder 2GO Freight Services, which handled the shipment, has no further information,” he said.
A log ban covering natural forests has been in effect in Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi, the provinces that make up the ARMM.
Hataman said he had ordered the filing of charges against the shippers, whom he did not name.
A military official, who asked not to be named, said container vans storing illegally sourced lumber were common at Polloc Port but these were “misdeclared” sometimes as sacks of rice.
He said that on at least two occasions he knew about, shippers showed written pass orders from a DENR official in Manila.
“There could be more illegal shipments waiting to be forwarded,” the military official said.
Kedtag said that even if they wanted to open container vans stored at the port, port consignment policies prevent them from opening cargoes without proper court orders.
Port Manager Kahar Ibay said he had met representatives of shipping lines operating at the port to discuss, among others, measures that need to be stepped up to prevent the shipment of illegal goods.
He said that although measures have to be taken to check on illegal activities, port authorities did not want to discourage shippers by hampering the movement of cargoes.
“We need to work out with them to address issues like this even as we try to keep business operations at a healthy level,” he said.
In Davao City, Mindanao Development Authority chair Luwalhati Antonino said the unabated cutting of trees in the ARMM and other parts of Mindanao has hampered the sustainability of hydropower generation for Mindanao.
She said that at only 21 percent, the island’s forest cover could barely sustain the operation of hydropower facilities, which provide more than half of the island’s energy needs.
“The watershed condition in Mindanao is very alarming,” she said.
Antonino said she was hoping that the creation of the Mindanao Power Corp. (MPC) would help restore the island’s forest cover.
The creation of the MPC is being pushed by both the private and public sector in Mindanao to address the power crisis affecting the island.
Antonino said that if realized, the MPC could allocate an annual budget of P200 million for restoration and management of Mindanao’s watershed areas, especially in Lanao del Sur and Bukidnon, where the Agus and Pulangi hydropower plants are located.
“The pursuit of economic development in Mindanao must not come at the expense of the environment,” she said. Edwin Fernandez and Judy Quiros, Inquirer Mindanao
