LUCENA CITY, Quezon, Philippines – Operatives from the Quezon Environment Enforcement Group (QEEG) have intercepted an estimated 3,000 board feet (7.08 cubic meters) of illegally cut narra logs on Wednesday morning while these were being towed in the seas of Panukulan, Quezon, a provincial environment official said.
Manny Calayag, community coordinator of the Quezon Environment and Natural Resource Office (Quezon-ENRO), said members of the QEEG team were conducting surveillance against illegal logging in northern Quezon when they intercepted a motorized boat that was towing several narra square logs in the seas fronting the island-town of Panukulan.
Calayag said the illegal loggers managed to escape, leaving behind the freshly cut illegal forest products believed to have been brought down from the Sierra Madre.
Calayag said the government operatives decided not to run after the fleeing loggers because they were all armed. Illegal logging syndicates in Sierra Madre employ armed men for protection, according to Agta tribesmen.
“The operation is still ongoing. The QEEG operatives are still searching for more floating logs,” Calayag said over the phone.
Last May 30, QEEG operatives also seized more than 4,000 board feet (9.44 cubic meters) of red lauan, another hard wood species, while being smuggled out from the Sierra Madre via the Umiray River.
Umiray River, which connects Aurora and Quezon provinces and ends at the mouth of Pacific Ocean in Infanta, Quezon, is often used to transport illegal logs from Sierra Madre.
“The logs were abandoned by illegal loggers when they sensed that the QEEG operatives were on their tracks,” Calayag said.
The QEEG operatives have been monitoring the sea and the river tributaries from the Sierra Madre on the order of Quezon Gov. David Suarez, who formed QEEG to complement the provincial government’s reforestation program particularly in the denuded parts of Sierra Madre.
Suarez earlier said that the authorities would have to be more daring in stopping illegal logging and other crimes against the environment to show the provincial government’s seriousness in protecting Quezon’s environment.