7,000 board feet of hot logs seized

Police yesterday dawn seized six cargo trucks loaded with an estimated seven thousand board feet of Gemelina and Mahogany logs in a roadblock they set up infront of their office in barangay Talamban.

A certain Orlando Villa of Humay-humay, Lapu-Lapu City, who runs a lumberyard at the said place allegedly owns the seized logs and trucks.

PO1 Allan Macatangay of the Talamban Police station received a telephone call from a concerned citizen yesterday informing them of a convoy of six trucks loaded with timber coming from barangay Cambinucot en route to barangay Talamban.

The policemen immediately set up a roadblock infront of the police station. The convoy of trucks was stopped at past 2:30 a.m. yesterday and that drivers were asked to present the documents required to transport the said logs.

The Talamban Police said in their report to the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Branch that they found the permit to transport understated, that the owner failed to present to them his business permit, and that the value of the timber was not declared.

The police also found out that three of the trucks bore plate numbers that didn't match those that were stated in the permit prompting them to turn the vehicles over to the CIIB for verification.

PO2 Edward Abatayo of the CIIB told The FREEMAN that shippers must bring with them the permit to transport with the specification of their cargo, time of transport, certification of the barangay captain from the origin of the timber including its value.

Abatayo said Villa presented the documents to them, but for the three trucks with plate numbers found to have not matched what was indicated in the documents, the CIIB turned these over to the City Environment and Natural Resources Office for clarification.

One of the drivers who refused to give his name said that they resort to using other trucks after the ones stated encountered mechanical defects.

He added they had to follow the schedule in transporting the lumber before the permit expires tomorrow, September 12. - Edwin Ian Melecio