NEWSFLASH

DENR ACTS TO CURB ILLEGAL LOGGING

Manila, August 22, 2002 (STAR) By Benny G. Enriquez - The continuing efforts of the government to curb illegal logging has resulted to the confiscation of forest products in Sitio Palacio, Brgy. Balian, Pangil, Laguna, last July 21.

Confiscated were 209 pieces of dipterocarp flitches and logs and five pieces of softwood square logs (slabs). Said forest products are deposited at the CENTRO Station, Pakil, Laguna for safekeeping and custody.

With nobody claiming ownership of the forest products, the DENR local office is undertaking an administrative confiscation hearing.

The operation was undertaken by a team from Laguna headed by PENRO Rogelio Delgado and CENRO Isidro Mercado upon the instruction of the Secretary.

In a related development, DENR Quezon in collaboration with the elements of the PNP, Mauban Coast Guard, and Elizabeth Mossman of a Quezon NGO, recently apprehended the boat M/B Ian Rose loaded with 34 pieces of narra flitches with a volume of 1,278 bd. ft. allegedly originating from Palanan, Isabela.

The boat has been placed under the custody of the maritime group while the forest products are deposited at the DENR forest station in Mauban, Quezon. Criminal complaints were immediately filed against the owners of the boat and narra flitches, and other people involved.

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Heherson Alvarez directed DENR Region 4 director, Samuel Peñafiel to strictly monitor the hot spots during a recent aerial reconnaissance by Alvarez in the tributaries of the Agus River and the Kaliwa and Kanan rivers.

He also ordered the confiscation of all flitches "tablon" sighted floating in the said rivers. A team from CENRO Real, Quezon made an inventory of the flitches and lumber floating in the upstream of Agus River.

The forest products include 3,636 flitches and 286 round logs with a total volume of 342,706 bd. ft. Retrieval however, is quite slow due to the difficulty in bringing down the flitches from its source.

The relentless drive of the DENR against illegal activities resulted in the signing by PENROs Armando Rutaquio (Quezon), Rogelio Delgado (Laguna), and Maximo Soriano, of a memorandum of agreement with the AFP, Task Force Makiling, Phil. Army (Calabarzon) and PNP provincial directors fo the three provinces, creating the Task Force Querilag.

In Gen. Nakar and Infanta, Quezon, the combined efforts of the 59th Infantry Batallion, 2nd ID of the Phil. Army under Col. Alexander Dicarez, also confiscated logs with a total of 8,000 bd. ft. Accordingly, RED Peñafiel said that they would totally plug the outlets of illegally cut forest products and deny poachers of a market in order to put an end to forest destruction in these towns.