DENR sues 28 forestry law violators

CEBU, Philippines -  The Department of Environment and Natural Resources-7 has filed a total of 28 forestry cases to identified forest law violators in Central Visayas in 2012.

According to the annual report released by the Forestry Management Services, 10 of the 28 forestry cases were from Cebu province, 11 from Bohol and seven from Negros Oriental.

Isabelo Montejo, DENR-7 regional executive director, said that this is in response to the call of the DENR Secretary Ramon JP Paje to strengthen forest protection in support to the anti-illegal logging campaign of the department.

“Secretary Paje reiterated his seriousness in fighting against environmental law violators, so we, the DENR 7, in cooperation with our field offices and partner agencies and authorities are stringently monitoring illegal transport of forest products here in the region,” said Montejo.

For 2013, Montejo said that DENR will continue the strict campaign against illegal logging to help protect and preserve the forest cover in the country.

“We need the vigilance of the communities and local government units as we try to sustain the closer ties with them in enforcing relevant forestry laws, rules and regulations,” he said.

The National Anti-illegal Logging Task Force recently passed a resolution focusing of the revitalized anti-illegal logging campaign under the leadership of the military this 2013.

It can be recalled that under the National Greening Program which is supportive to the Philippine Development Plan, the DENR-7 has allocated P369.830 million for 2013 to reforest around 24,461 hectares of identified forest land and NGP sites in Central Visayas.  - /BRP (FREEMAN)