Hot lumber worth P50,000 seized from Sierra Madre mountain in Quezon

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

LUCENA CITY — Combined police and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) operatives in Infanta town in Quezon province on Tuesday seized illegally cut lumber worth about P50,000 from the Sierra Madre mountain range.

A report from the Quezon police said the government forces recovered at 12:15 p.m. 335 pieces of newly sawn “lauan” lumber with an estimated volume of 1,000 board feet (2.35 cubic meters) abandoned by illegal loggers along Agos river in Barangay Banugao.

The hot lumber were inside an abandoned Hyundai Grace van with plate number UPD 908 while the other forest products were scattered on the riverbanks.

The seized lumber was worth more than P50,000 in the underground market, according to the authorities.

READ: Hot lumber from Sierra Madre intercepted in Quezon

The report identified an alias “Imbe” as responsible for the illegal lumber. However, Imbe and his four cohorts escaped.

The vehicle and seized lumber were placed under the custody of DENR office in nearby Real town for proper disposition.

Hot logs and timber flitches were being hauled down from the Sierra Madre mountain ranges in northern Quezon via the raging Agos river. The illegal forest products were eventually intercepted down the river by hired workers of illegal logging syndicates.

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.