Town puts foot down vs logging

BUMBARAN, Lanao del Sur—Three meters from the municipal hall of Bumbaran in Lanao del Sur, a small gate leads to the police station where hundreds of logs belonging to the highly priced wild pine species are strewn all over the ground and exposed to the sun and rain.

Locally called “egem,” the logs, with a total volume of 60,000 board feet and valued at more than P4.2 million, were confiscated in a series of raids by local officials in August and September in Bumbaran’s boundary with Maguing town, also in Lanao del Sur, according to Mayor Mastura Manabilang.

Egem is one of the most sought-after wood among furniture makers, Manabilang says. It sells at P70 per board foot.

The seized logs may have come from Barangays Salam and Mansilano in Bumbaran’s Blue Mountain, one of the three remaining forested mountain ranges in Mindanao. The others are in Surigao and in Mount Kitanglad in Bukidnon.

Blue Mountain

Manabilang says the Blue Mountain watersheds keep and protect the Maridagao River, which traverses Bumbaran and Bukidnon and drains into the Rio Grande de Mindanao and the Liguasan Marsh.

“When heavy rains come, Maridagao would swell and those that take the brunt are low-lying areas like nearby Kalilangan town in Bukidnon, down to where it connects to the Rio Grande and the Liguasan,” he explains.

Local officials believe that protecting the watersheds, on which farmers depend for survival, will also spare the lowlands of Cotabato and Bukidnon from floodwaters when heavy rain comes. The worst of such flooding occurred only in June, when the Rio Grande and the Liguasan swelled, submerging Cotabato City and rendering thousands of people homeless.

“We want to preserve the watersheds around Lake Lanao, which are now threatened by poachers and illegal loggers,” says Alexander Abuso, a member of the Sangguniang Bayan (municipal council).

Bumbaran started to intensify its drive against illegal logging in 2009 when its officials noticed that most of the illegal logs seized in such places as Cagayan de Oro City and Davao “were found to have come from here,” Manabilang says.

Logging financiers

The mayor refuses to identify the culprits, but an official, who refused to be named because he frequents the area, says most of the financiers of illegal logging in Bumbaran come from neighboring towns, including Maguing, and Barangays Tig-aslon and Dominorog in Talakag  town in Bukidnon.

The source says the logs pass through the Bukidnon villages. According to him, Bumbaran officials had earlier secured a hold order from their counterparts in Talakag for illegal logs coming from Bumbaran.

Loggers appear to have obtained fake permits again, that’s why they could not be apprehended, he says. “Those involved are old players who know how to secure spurious permits.”

In March, Bumbaran’s municipal council asked President Aquino in a resolution sent through Environment Secretary Ramon Paje to cancel all logging permits and declare a total log ban in the town.

In another letter to Paje, Manabilang said he and the other officials had asked the help of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Talakag and another Bukidnon town, Pangantukan, in stopping illegal logs headed to Cagayan de Oro.

Referral to ARMM

“For unknown reasons, the operation is still going on until now,” the mayor wrote.

In reply, Environment Undersecretary Ernesto Adobo Jr. told Manabilang that the President had already issued Executive Order No. 23 on Feb. 1, declaring a moratorium on the cutting and harvesting of timber in the natural and residual forests, and creating the Anti-Illegal Logging Task Force.

Adobo simply referred the mayor’s request for assistance to the regional secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which was earlier furnished a copy.

Bumbaran and Wao, another town in Lanao del Sur, and Kalilangan town in Bukidnon have agreed to help each other in carrying out the fight against illegal logging.

Wao campaign

According to Wao Mayor Elvino Balicao Jr., 99 percent of illegal logging in his town has been stopped after forest guards were deployed. Near the municipal hall of Wao, a 10-wheeler truck full of logs of the Red Tiger variety has been parked since March 25 last year when it was apprehended.

“We will leave it there until the logs begin to rot to remind everyone we are serious about illegal logging,” Balicao says.

“Our forest contributes to the stream of Maridagao River, that’s why we need to guard it,” he adds.

Bumbaran’s environment officer, Ram Manabilang, says the municipal council has not yet decided on what to do with the strewn logs near the police station. Its officials may ask the DENR for permission to donate the logs to the Department of Education as construction materials for classrooms and a government pharmacy.