3 TRUCKS WITH HOT LOGS SLIP PAST QUEZON DENR YESTERDAY NIGHT
MANILA, December 7, 2004 (STAR) Three trucks laden with a still undetermined number of illegally cut logs gave personnel of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) the slip in Mauban, Quezon the other night.
Environment Secretary Michael Defensor told reporters yesterday that the DENR received an intelligence report from the Philippine Air Force (PAF) that the shipment of "hot" lumber was en route to Manila from Mauban.
Acting on the tip, the DENR deployed a team to Mauban at 11 p.m. Sunday, but the driver of one of the three trucks might have sensed they were being tailed and returned to Mauban after changing his truck’s license plates.
The two other trucks, Defensor said, passed through a police checkpoint in the town of Tayabas. The DENR later learned that the trucks had presented a tampered DENR permit to sentries manning the checkpoints.
Defensor has asked the Philippine National Police (PNP) to be more vigilant in manning its checkpoints, saying that now that a total log ban is in place, both the cutting and transport of lumber are not allowed.
"Even with a total log ban in place, our countrymen continue their illegal logging activities," Defensor said in Filipino. "We are calling on the PNP and saying that no logs should pass these checkpoints, even if they have papers because these papers are probably forged."
"Let’s not point fingers anymore," he said, even as he urged the PNP to investigate allegations that some of its officers are in cahoots with illegal loggers. "(The police) should confirm what is happening at these checkpoints."
Defensor also called on the public to help the DENR monitor the movement of illegally cut lumber: "Unlike drugs, cut timber is easier to spot. Logs are big and easy to see and we ask the public to call us if they see trucks transporting logs."
PNP chief Director General Edgar Aglipay ordered all regional PNP directors to ensure that logs swept downhill by floods and landslides in typhoon-stricken areas are not smuggled out of the affected areas.
"The PNP chief has directed all PNP units to enforce the total log ban effective immediately, in coordination with the DENR," PNP spokesman Senior Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil said.
Bataoil said Aglipay has also ordered all PNP field commanders to make the necessary arrangements with local DENR representatives in deterring the transportation of logs, particularly those from Quezon and Aurora.
Nature, not denudation
Meanwhile, in San Fernando City, Pampanga, DENR executive director for Central Luzon Regidor de Leon stood by his claims that nature — not forest denudation — was the cause of the flashfloods in Aurora.
The five DENR personnel who stand to lose their jobs were assigned to their posts only a few months ago and could not have colluded with illegal loggers, De Leon told The STAR yesterday.
"I have not yet received any order to relieve the five officials, but it seems their relief orders are coming," he said.
De Leon identified the officials under fire as: Ma. Aurora community environment and natural resources office Jeremias Casola, Dingalan CENRO Mileton Vicente, and provincial environment and natural resources officer (PENRO) Benjamin Minia, all in Aurora province, and Cabanatuan City CENRO’s Joselito Blanco and Rafael Otic.
De Leon urged Malacañang to create an "independent body" from the ranks of academe and environmentalists amid allegations blaming the calamity on logging activities in Nueva Ecija and Aurora. Another DENR official described Quezon as "a no man’s land for illegal loggers."
De Leon also said he was not aware of the existence of the "Hong Kong Boys" and Filipino-Chinese people, whom former environment secretary Heherson Alvarez accused of financing illegal logging operations in the Sierra Madre mountains.
"Casola and Vicente were assigned to their posts only three months ago, while Blanco and Otic (were assigned to their posts) only five months ago," he said.
De Leon said former environment secretary Elisea Gozun called the regional DENR office here to express her "sympathy" with the employees under fire.
He recalled that in February, Blanco and Otic almost lost their lives performing their duty when they were fired at by illegal loggers in Gen. Tinio in Nueva Ecija.
"They were unarmed and saved their lives only by jumping into a ravine," he said. "We armed them so when they got back to Gen. Tinio, they were able to convince illegal loggers to cooperate with the government."
Minia was accused by a priest in Dingalan, Aurora of possessing unexplained wealth. Minia was appointed acting PENRO in Dingalan only last year and, prior to his assignment to Aurora, he was based in Antipolo City.
De Leon said that there were no logging operations in the mountain ranges of Dingalan - although Barangay Paltik, the area hardest hit by flashfloods - served as a repository area for logs cut in Gen. Nakar in neighboring Quezon province.
Other causes
De Leon cited a study released by geologists which shows that the flashfloods and landslides that killed scores of people during the onslaughts of typhoons "Violeta" and "Winnie" in Dingalan, Aurora were triggered by natural causes.
Reacting to reports that the flooding in Nueva Ecija originated in Aurora, De Leon said "that’s impossible. For the floods in Dingalan to reach Nueva Ecija, the waters would have to cross mountain ranges. The fact is, the waters in Aurora tend to flow towards the Pacific Ocean, not to the opposite direction in Nueva Ecija."
He admitted, however, that the flashfloods and landslides that hit Nueva Ecija, particularly Gabaldon, Cabanatuan City, San Leonardo and Gapan, were probably partially triggered by logging operations in the Sierra Madre.
However, he also cited findings that indicated that the cut timber washed downhill by flashfloods from the mountain ranges in Nueva Ecija were "old logs" cut between five and 10 years ago.
Geologist Arnulfo Cabantog, head of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) in Central Luzon, told De Leon that, years ago, he had been warning folk in Dingalan about the existence of a major earthquake fault in their area.
"(Cabantog) knew the fault existed there because of coconut trees whose trunks were unusually bent. This meant that the fault has been moving and loosening the soil, causing the trees to incline," De Leon said. "(Coconut) trees naturally tend to seek vertical growth so their slanting trunks bend upward again, causing them to grow with curved trunks. We have photos of this."
The loosened soil, combined with the heavy rains, triggered the flashfloods and landslides that hit Dingalan, he said, adding that the logs that reportedly hit the town during typhoon Winnie’s fury were actually uprooted trees or trees that had broken apart as they were washed down from the mountainside.
He also cited findings by the Philippine Astronomical, Geological and Atmospheric Services Administration (Pag-Asa) that the rainfall during the Nov. 22 typhoon, when Dingalan was first hit by flashfloods, was measured 127 mm. in just one day.
"Records showed that, in the month of November for the last five years up to 2003, the average rainfall was 1.2 mm. per day or only 58.22 mm. for one entire month," he stressed.
The high volume of rainfall and the soil loosened by the movement of the fault in Aurora triggered the landslide that eroded 216 cubic meters of rock and soil and uprooted and washed down some 3,000 trees over 27 hectares of forest land in Dingalan, he said.
In Butuan City the 20,000-strong Federation of Caraga Tree Farmers’ Association Inc. (FCTAI) passed a resolution yesterday supporting President Arroyo’s nationwide crackdown on illegal logging and sought her support to promote tree planting nationwide to address the country’s huge reforestation needs.
Likewise, the Society of Filipino Foresters Inc. Mindanao and the League of Private Professional Foresters in Mindanao also issued similar resolutions and urged the President and Defensor to lift suspension of DENR Administrative Order No. 2004-04.
On Nov. 5, the group said, Defensor issued an order suspending implementation of DENR Administrative Order 2004-04 or DAO 2004-04, a policy deregulating activities of small tree farming areas in the region or in the country.
With the suspension, foresters from the DENR are the only ones qualified to assist tree farmers in their documentation process, an endeavor that, because of limited DENR personnel or foresters, has become a source of graft and corruption.
NPA’s cut
The New People’s Army has been getting a huge slice of the illegal logging operations in the Sierra Madre, largely blamed for the devastation that hit several areas in Aurora and Quezon, 2nd Infantry Division commander Maj. Gen. Efren Orbon said.
Orbon said he has documents to prove the communists have been making a killing in all illegal activities in Southern Tagalog and Aurora.
"For every board foot of illegal cut logs in the Sierra Madre, the NPAs are getting a P2 per board foot share from the illegal loggers," Orbon said.
He added that aside from the P2 share, the rebels have been collecting revolutionary taxes from these illegal loggers for them to be able to operate freely.
"Those who refused get their equipment destroyed," Orbon said, as he explained that the military are also finding it difficult to run after the rebel-protectors of these illegal loggers due to the indifference of local folk in the campaign.
Local folk in the Sierra Madre have been classified as the direct beneficiary of logging activities in the area, as most of them are being paid on a daily basis to cut logs in the mountains. — Ding Cervantes, Mike Frialde, Christina Mendez, Jaime Laude and Ben Serrano
Reported by: Sol Jose Vanzi
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