5 mayors face illegal logging probe

BUTUAN CITY—Five mayors in Agusan del Sur and Agusan del Norte have been placed under investigation for their alleged failure to detect the shipments of millions of pesos worth of illegally cut logs that were transported through their towns.

The log shipments were intercepted here on their way to a wood-processing company.

Butuan City Mayor Ferdinand Amante Jr. said the 7,255 pieces of logs, worth at least P16 million, were the largest illegal log haul in the Caraga region this year.

Amante said he wondered how the log shipments were able to slip past several environmental protection checkpoints in the riverside towns of La Paz, San Luis, Talacogon, Esperanza and Las Nieves.

Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said he has ordered an investigation of the mayors of the Agusan del Sur towns of Esperanza (Leonida Manpatilan), San Luis (Ronaldo Corvera), Talacogon (Isaias Masendo) and La Paz (Ambrosio Lim).

Robredo said the mayor of the Agusan del Norte town of Las Nieves, Reinario Rosales, would also be investigated.

“Was there neglect of duty or did they allow this to happen?” Robredo said in an interview with the Inquirer during a visit here last Monday.

“In our show-cause order, we asked them why no action was taken in their jurisdictions. The mayors, chiefs of police and village chiefs have indirect accountability for this,” said the local government secretary.

But Robredo quickly clarified that the mayors will not be suspended during the investigation, saying due process has to be followed.

President Aquino has issued an executive order declaring a total ban on commercial logging nationwide. Robredo said this EO mandates mayors and other local officials to seize illegal logs in favor of government.

An indigenous people’s group, however, is claiming ownership of the logs.

Victoriano Vidal, consultant of the Manobo-Banwaon-Higaonon Tribal Council of Elders of Agusan del Sur, said the logs were not illegally harvested and these came from their ancestral domain.

He said tribal communities are allowed to harvest logs under an agreement between the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

“No law was violated because the logs were taken from our ancestral lands and we were given authority (to harvest logs) as an exemption to the log ban,” Vidal told Robredo during a meeting here.

Vidal also demanded the return of the logs to his group, which Robredo flatly rejected.

“Giving up the seized logs would set a bad precedent in the government’s effort to curb illegal logging,” said Robredo.

“It’s nonnegotiable. President Aquino has imposed a ban on logging and it stands,” Robredo added. Franklin A. Caliguid, Inquirer Mindanao