Police seize abandoned hot lumber in Quezon

LUCENA CITY–Police seized about P16,900 worth of illegal forest products from Sierra Madre mountain ranges in northern Quezon in General Nakar town Monday.

The confiscated timber flitches from hardwood species with an estimated total volume of 390 board feet (0.92 cubic meters), were found abandoned along Agos river in Barangay Anoling during the police twin operations in the morning and shortly before midnight, Quezon police director Senior Supt. Rhoderick Armamento, said.

The police acted on information on illegal logging in the area provided by villagers, Armamento said.

Police are conducting an investigation to identify the loggers behind the abandoned forest products.

Hot logs and timber flitches are hauled down from the Sierra Madre through the raging Agos river. The illegal forest products are eventually intercepted down the river by hired workers of illegal logging syndicates.

The environmentalist group, Save Sierra Madre Network Alliance, said illegal logging has returned in the longest mountain range in the country.

The Sierra Madre contains the largest remaining tract of old-growth tropical rainforest in the Philippines. It spans Luzon’s northeastern coast from Cagayan province in the north to Quezon province in the south.