Environment officials inspect logs and forest products seized during raids in a Lanao del Sur town. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
COTABATO CITY—Eleven truckloads of illegally cut logs were confiscated and two sawmills were closed in Lanao del Sur by the Department of Enviroment and Natural Resources in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (DENR-ARMM) on Saturday.
Kahal Kedtag, DENR-ARMM secretary, said department and local government officials, escorted by policemen and soldiers, conducted raids in the town of Maguing, Lanao del Sur and seized the forest products worth more than P1 million.
Kedtag has yet to name the people behind the illegal cutting of trees in the watershed area of Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte which are under the administrative control of the DENR office in Northern Mindanao.
Even the operators of the two sawmills in Maguing, which the DENR-ARMM ordered closed, have yet to be named as investigation is ongoing.
He said cutting of trees in the ARMM has been banned starting in 2012 by Executive Order No. 1 that declared a total ban on logging in the five-province-and two-city autonomous region.
“We have yet to determine if the clearing activity to convert the forest area into agriculture (areas) is a violation,” said Kedtag.
“But on second thought, it is a violation because the cutting of trees is within the watershed area,” he added.
He said although the area is under the jurisdiction of DENR Northern Mindanao, “ARMM has the responsibility when it comes to forest protection since the illegal operation happens within the ARMM territory.”
Kedtag said he wants to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the regional office of DENR to define the role of the ARMM office of the department.
Kedtag promised to help communities who are venturing into the production of cacao, coffee or rubber but agricultural projects should not violate the ARMM ban on logging.
Logs and sawmill equipment seized during the raid in Maguing had been turned over to the Lanao del Sur government’s Anti-Illegal Logging Task Group. —CHARLIE C. SEÑASE