Illegal logging case vs mayor not moving, says DENR

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—A case filed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) against Mayor Rommel del Rosario of Bagac, Bataan, for alleged possession of illegally cut lumber has not moved at the prosecutor’s office since it was filed on Jan. 8, according to a DENR official.

“It has not even reached the stage of preliminary investigation,” lawyer Ricardo Lazaro, DENR director in Bataan, said by telephone.

Provincial Prosecutor Angelito Lumabas said the case was not filed in his office, but in the prosecutor’s office in Balanga City.

Regional Prosecutor Jesus Simbulan promised to get the latest information on the case.

The Inquirer tried to reach Del Rosario for an update on the case but he did not reply to calls and text messages.

Government foresters seized more than 1,000 board feet of lumber from the mayor’s house in a subdivision in Balanga on Jan. 5.

Del Rosario earlier said the lumber was “escorted by the police and [the shipment was on its way] to Camp Tolentino in Balanga City for turnover to the police.”

However, he claimed to be not in his house in La Katrina Subdivision when a DENR team saw a government-owned truck delivering the lumber there. The team also found “kusot” (wood shavings) around his house and a sawmill across it.

Senior Supt. Arnold Gunnacao, Bataan police director, has relieved the Bagac police chief, Senior Insp. George Santiago, for failure to account for 1,896 board feet out of the 3,076 board feet of lumber confiscated from timber poachers in 2010.

On Thursday, Lumabas said he ordered the police to release seven suspects who were arrested for cutting and loading undocumented acacia lumber in Mariveles town on the night of June 29.

“The policemen lacked documents. They don’t have an actual estimate of the seized items,” Lumabas said.

Lazaro said the 312 pieces of acacia lumber totalled 30.95 cubic meters and worth P1.9 million. These were loaded in two trucks.

President Aquino has issued an executive order that stopped all commercial logging, a move hailed by environmentalists as a right step to protecting whatever was left of the country’s forests.

Logging continues in some parts of the country, however, particularly in the Sierra Madre mountain ranges which is one of the most heavily logged areas in Luzon.

Members of watchdog groups that have documented continued logging in Sierra Madre have been receiving death threats from syndicates that are financing the illegal operations in the mountain range.