Mandaue’s smuggled logs from Surigao

THE illegal lumber seized from a warehouse in Mandaue City on Wednesday came from Surigao del Norte, a police official said.

The P10 million logs of high value hardwood species like narra, magaong and mahogany were shipped to Cebu through Sibonga town in the south, said Senior Supt. Jose Pante, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Central Visayas (CIDG-7).

The wood probably came from mountain forests in Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur with Cebu as a transshipment point.

The warehouse owner Jose Yap was not present when the raid was staged but criminal charges will be filed against him said Pante.

Pante said police are investigating persons involved in the shipment aside from Yap, who owns the warheouse in barangay Paknaan.

The logs were later turned over to the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (Penro), which conducted the joint operation with the police armed with a search warrant from Mandaue City Regional Trial Court Judge Rafael Yrastorza..

CIDG men applied for the search warrant after being tipped off about the banned lumber in the warehouse.

The lumber stockpile suggests that illegal logging continues in Northeastern Mindanao despite a total log ban declared by President Benigno Aquino III last year.

Aquino’s E.O. 23 declared a moratorium on the cutting and harvesting of timber in natural and residual forests nationwide in 2011.