Mayor accuses Cenro exec of illegal tree cutting

MAASIN CITY—Southern Leyte Gov. Roger Mercado said an officer of the Community Environment and Natural Resources office (Cenro) has been accused of involvement in the illegal cutting of trees in the guise of retrieving trees damaged by Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”

Mercado said Silago Mayor Manuel Labrador made the accusation against Cenro San Juan officer Alejandro Bautista, who had denied the allegations.

“Men hired by the Cenro have cut trees, even if [the trees had] not fallen [from] Yolanda. This should be investigated by the higher ups,” Mercado said over the phone.

“We have been planting trees to protect our environment but here, the Cenro, which is tasked to protect, are the ones instigating the illegal cutting of trees. This should be reported to the DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) higher ups,” Labrador said.

At least 1,500 trees were uprooted by Yolanda in areas under the jurisdiction of Cenro San Juan comprising the towns of Liloan, San Francisco, Pintuyan and San Ricardo on Panaon island; the Pacific towns of St. Bernard, San Juan, Anahawan, Hinundayan, Hinunangan and Silago,  and Sogod and Libagon. Silago is adjacent to Abuyog town, which was also heavily hit by Yolanda.

In a phone interview, Bautista said there was no truth to the allegation that he included trees not fallen from Yolanda in their retrieval operations.

The Silago officials might have wanted to retaliate because they were not allowed to retrieve fallen trees for their own use, he claimed.

When they were not given authority to retrieve the trees, Silago officials passed a resolution stopping the Cenro from retrieving fallen trees, Bautista said.

“We have already cut at least 30 fallen trees into lumber from out of the 900 uprooted in Silago when they stopped us. Cenro San Juan has been cited for their effort to protect the environment. But if they [don’t] like me, I am very much willing to be assigned somewhere,” he said.

Although not as devastated as Leyte province, the damage on properties and agricultural products in Southern Leyte reached about P400 million.

The province, which also sustained damage due to Yolanda, was the first responder to help Leyte, particularly Tacloban City, bringing six 10-wheeler dump trucks and more than a hundred personnel to help the city in clearing debris and moving relief items from the airport to relief centers.