STA. JOSEFA, Agusan del Sur—The intensified campaign against illegal logging activities here nearly claimed the life of Mayor Jann Roby Otero when his car was almost sideswiped by a truck carrying illegal logs during a chase.
“It almost cost my life,” Otero said as he recalled the incident on the eve of the barangay elections.
Otero said he and his driver had caught up with the truck, being driven by Narciso Langub, after a long chase.
But instead of yielding, Otero said Langub even tried to sideswipe his car.
He said the truck, which was later determined to be carrying some 15 cubic meters of lauan and other species valued at P79,000, also nearly ran over four children when it swerved to the opposite lane.
The children were, however, quick enough to jump into a ditch, Otero said.
When the driver of the truck finally surrendered, it was found out that the logs he was transporting had no documents. But Otero said Langub was silent.
“It was only during police investigation that he spoke,” he said, adding that charges of direct assault to person in authority and frustrated homicide had been filed against the 23-year-old Langub.
It was also during the police investigation that the truck was found to belong to the family of Vice Mayor Symond Caguiat, which operates a veneer processing plant in Barangay Sta. Isabel.
Caguiat, however, said his family’s business was never involved in illegal logging activities.
“We never did. The environment department allowed us to process planted tree species, mostly falcata logs,” he said.
Otero said it was the second incident that the veneer processing business that Caguiat’s family operates got involved in a controversy.
It was also dragged into the log smuggling issue in barangays Awao and Sayon, when some 400 pieces of illegally sawn lauan trees were recovered there last month.
The anti-illegal logging drive here was more concentrated in these villages because these were hardest hit by Typhoon “Pablo” in December last year. Chris Panganiban, Inquirer Mindanao