Environment officials and Army soldiers arrested seven persons on board two tugboats towing P1.2 million worth of logs off Mauban town in northern Quezon on Sunday.
The illegally cut logs, with a total volume of 141.58 cubic meters (60,000 board feet), were tied in 25 rafted flitches and floated from General Nakar town at the foot of the Sierra Madre mountains, according to Nilo Tamoria, regional director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
Tamoria said the hardwood products were seized near Cagbalete Island at around 6 p.m. on Sunday and immediately hauled to the compound of a local sawmill in Mauban for inventory and safekeeping.
The price of the logs “could still go up because of the limited supply due to our strict monitoring,” he said.
Fr. Pete Montallana, chair of the Save Sierra Madre Network, said the seizure confirmed his group’s earlier report of unabated illegal logging in northern Quezon.
“I was really dismayed and troubled with the report. It only means that the log ban of President Aquino was only for media consumption. He should act now before it’s too late for the Sierra Madre,” Montallana said in a phone interview on Monday.
The President signed Executive Order No. 23 on February 3, which imposed a moratorium on the cutting and harvesting of trees in the country.
Tamoria, however, said most of the logs confiscated in Mauban were old. “They were left abandoned atop Sierra Madre,” he said.
According to him, illegal loggers had seized the opportunity to transport the logs since the DENR head in Real town, Millete Panaligan, was confined in the hospital.
Tamoria identified those arrested as Nestor Balsita, Jobel Fortunado, Jackie Remarosa, Cleto Torres, Jefer Potencia, Dennis Morada and Ernesto Torres. They were being held at the Mauban police office.
They said the logs were owned by a certain Jaime Versoza, who, they added, was funding illegal logging activities in General Nakar.
Tamoria said his office was monitoring the Mauban coast since Saturday after receiving information about the plan to ship out the logs over the weekend.
The DENR official led the operation with two forest rangers, while Captain Jun Villamante led the soldiers.
Montallana affirmed that Mauban was being used as a transshipment point of illegal forest products from the Sierra Madre and bound for Metro Manila and other provinces in Southern Tagalog.
“The DENR can never stop illegal logging because of the widespread corruption inside (the agency). Although there are dedicated government workers, some unscrupulous DENR personnel were in cahoots with forest criminals,” he said.
Tamoria said the protection of the environment should not be left alone to the government. “The government and the private sector should join hands to protect and preserve the environment,” he said.