Key illegal log site in Quezon raided

LUCENA CITY—A five-man team of the Quezon provincial government penetrated what team members said was the heart of illegal logging in the province and seized in a recent raid at least 270 freshly cut logs believed to have been brought down from the Sierra Madre.

Members of the Quezon Environment Enforcement Group (QEEG) raided several mountain villages in General Nakar town after conducting surveillance operations on illegal logging syndicates there.

The team decided to move in after confirming illegal logging operations in the villages of Canaway and Umiray, according to Fernando Masaganda, head of the QEEG.

“When our village informants confirmed the location of the hot logs, we decided to quickly move in to prevent the logs from being hidden by illegal loggers,” said Masaganda, also a staffer of the Provincial Government-Environment and Natural Resources Office (PG-Enro).

Members of the logging syndicates, however, were able to sneak in and retrieve 77 pieces of the seized logs as QEEG members were transporting these along the Umiray River.

Masaganda said QEEG team members raided the illegal logging operations in Canaway and Umiray last Saturday and Sunday with the help of concerned residents.

Illegal loggers abandoned round and square logs, mostly from lauan and apitong trees, as the QEEG team drew near.

Gov. David Suarez, who had expressed support for President Aquino’s executive order banning all forms of commercial logging, formed QEEG last year to complement the provincial government’s program to plant a million trees particularly in denuded parts of Sierra Madre.

The QEEG team reported to Suarez last Wednesday. Masaganda showed Suarez a video recording of the raid that showed logs made to sink in the Umiray River to avoid detection.

“The operation was a great risk on their part. But sometimes, we have to be more daring to stop these environmental crimes to serve as warning to illegal loggers that we are really serious in our campaign,” Suarez said Thursday.

Illegal logging syndicates in Sierra Madre employ armed men for protection, according to Agta tribesmen.

Suarez commended the QEEG team of Masaganda and said team members would be honored in a program on Monday.

Masaganda said the team transported the seized logs by tying them together to form rafts. Team members rode in a boat escorting the logs along the Umiray River to its loading point in Infanta.

When the team members counted the logs in Infanta, they found 77 were missing and that these were picked up by members of illegal logging syndicates.

According to Masaganda, it took the QEEG team an entire day to transport the seized logs.

Umiray River, which connects Aurora and Quezon and ends at the mouth of Pacific Ocean in Infanta, is often used to transport illegal logs from Sierra Madre.

Masaganda estimated the illegal logs that QEEG seized to be worth at least P500,000.

Governor Suarez said some of the logs would be used as materials for armchairs and tables for different schools in the province. Some would be auctioned off to raise funds for the operations of QEEG.