DENR7 is seriously pursuing environment cases

CEBU, Philippines - A serious pursuit on 55 criminal cases filed in court against certain individuals who were violating forestry laws, rules and regulations is underway, an environment official said yesterday.

This, as Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) 7 Regional Executive Director, Dr. Isabelo Montejo, reiterated his call to all provincial environment and natural resources officers (PENRO) and community environment and natural resources officers (CENRO) to critically conduct an inventory on court hearing schedules of forestry-related cases filed within their area of jurisdiction.

Montejo said that a number of cases like illegal cutting of trees, undocumented forest products, and illegal transport or hauling of lumber pieces have been filed and pending in various Regional Trial Courts (RTC) in Central Visayas.

Based on a report released by the legal division on forestry-related cases pending in different RTCs as of yesterday, Cebu province has the most number cases with a total of 51 or 92.7 percent out of 55.

Bohol and Negros Oriental followed with three and one, respectively.

Siquijor, on the other hand, recorded no cases docketed.

Although, Montejo indicated that there is a decline of illegal transport of forest products without the necessary permits or documents due to the effective implementation of the Executive Order 23 issued by President Aquino by putting up more functional monitoring units in seaports or piers in order to detect movement of forest products entering Cebu.

In a September 20, 2013 memorandum signed by Montejo addressed to all PENROs and CENROs in four provinces, he warned all foresters and forest rangers who act as witnesses in a case filed in RTC to attend the slated hearing without fail.

The memorandum also mentioned that failure to attend the court hearing would constitute a serious administrative offense and that a DENR employee or official will be investigated and appropriate sanctions will be slapped against the erring personnel.

“We would not want to have these cases dismissed because of non-appearance of DENR in court hearings, that is something that I cannot tolerate,” Montejo said.

In a related development, Montejo issued a memorandum yesterday to forest ranger Bartolome Jimeno of CENRO Argao to explain in writing why he should not be administratively liable for not attending a hearing in RTC Branch 62 in Oslob, Cebu.

“DENR Secretary Ramon JP Paje has been seriously implementing the anti-illegal logging campaign as a priority program to protect our remaining forest cover and the same time a factor in mitigating the impacts of climate change,” Montejo said. —-/GMR (FREEMAN)