Logging equipment banned in forests

LOGGING equipment are now banned inside natural and residual forests nationwide, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said yesterday.

Environment Secretary Ramon Paje said he directed DENR regional directors to remove all logging, cutting and hauling equipment from natural and residual forests by the end of February.

The directive was in accordance with Executive Order No. 23 issued by President Aquino on Feb. 1, 2011, declaring a moratorium on the cutting and harvest of timber in natural and residual forests and creating an anti-illegal logging task force.

“This is to ensure that no further timber harvesting shall be done following the imposition of the logging moratorium by President Aquino,” Paje said.

He said all wood processing plants are required by the EO to submit to the task force a list of their sources of wood for the next five years.

The DENR has also stopped issuing wood processing permits, whether new or renewal, for sawmills, mini-sawmills and veneer and plywood plants.

The fight against illegal logging has taken a violent turn in some places.

In Tacloban City, environmental officer Pierre Gillo, 51, was shot dead outside his home there.

But his murder, which is being linked to the campaign against illegal logging in Samar where Gillo is community environment and natural resources officer, would not deter the Eastern Visayas office of the DENR from its war on illegal logging.

Primitivo Galinato Jr., DENR regional executive director, said Gillo’s murder strengthened the resolve of the DENR in the fight against illegal logging.

Senior Supt. Wilson Caubat, Tacloban police director, said Gillo’s killing could be related to his relentless campaign against illegal loggers in Sta. Rita, Samar.

Caubat, however, won’t provide more details. Galinato said he was convinced that Gillo was murdered because of his work against illegal logging in the Samar town.

“He was very active in law enforcement on illegal logging activity,” Galinato said. Paje condemned Gillo’s murder.

“If this killing turns out to be related to the government’s effort against illegal logging, then it would be a validation of our fear that the brazen response of illegal loggers have become increasingly brutal and are spreading across regions,” Paje said.

Gillo was the latest environment officer killed in connection with logging. In 2010, three forestry officers were killed in the province of Apayao and in the Caraga region.

Last July, forest ranger Kennedy Eber Bayani was shot dead in Luna, Apayao. Rolando Sanchez, DENR tree marker, and Rolando Sinaday, forest ranger, were murdered separately in Surigao del Sur last December.

Earlier this year, DENR forest ranger Jacinto P. Dragas, 55, was murdered. Dragas was active in the campaign against illegal logging in Caraga, which Paje described as the “killing field of forest protection workers.”