Nationwide ban on cutting of coconut trees proposed

The proposed suspension of the cutting of coconut trees would ensure
farmers and growers a steady supply of coconuts. —DELFIN T. MALLARI JR.

LUCENA CITY—A nationwide ban on the cutting of coconut trees would be implemented by the government to start the rehabilitation of the coconut industry, Philippine Coconut Authority Administrator Avelino Andal said here on Monday.

“But it will not be long. It will only be a short-term moratorium,” Andal told reporters in a press conference. He, however, did not elaborate on the period covered by the moratorium.

Andal said the suspension is an immediate measure to save coconut farmlands from illegal coconut lumber trade, “while we have yet to implement the needed control and monitoring mechanism on the ground.”

He lamented the prevalent corruption between unscrupulous PCA employees, who issue permits, and coconut lumber traders.

“There are instances of bribery, irregularities in transactions,” he said.

Andal said checkpoints put up by PCA and the police to prevent the transport of illegally cut coconut lumber have been rendered useless by widespread corruption.

‘Cash points’

“Oftentimes, these checkpoints become ‘cash points’ where grease money changed hands,” he said.

Andal said the military and volunteers, from a group called “Rodrigo Duterte Volunteer Foundation,” would help PCA and policemen in his renewed war on illegal coconut logging.

He said the implementation of the coconut tree cutting would start this week in Eastern Visayas and Zamboanga Peninsula regions.

“Coconut lumber traders in [these regions] would be advised to source their lumber from Basilan [province], which is now under heavy attacks from cocolisap (coconut scale insect) infestation,” he said.

Under Republic Act No. 8048 or the Coconut Preservation Act of 1995, the cutting of coconut trees is prohibited unless a permit is secured at the local PCA office.