‘Log ban resulting in mulcting at checkpoints’

Police and military checkpoints have now been dubbed "cash-points" by businessmen in the wood industry after law enforcers embarked on a "raging shakedown" as a result of government’s total log ban, victimizing even those with legal, fully documented logs.

Nick de Lange of Designs Ligna, who also heads the Chamber of Furniture Industries of the Philippines (CFIP), said yesterday they have been "receiving complaints" from their colleagues about the extortion activities involving "mostly law enforcers."

"They have been complaining about some officials of the government asking for some monetary consideration. It’s really an added expense. Our costs are rising because of these lagays (grease money) and facilitation expenses," he said.

These so-called "cash-points," the latest industry buzzword, have been reported "even in the national capital region (NCR) here in Manila," while the others are in Pampanga and the cities of Iloilo in the Visayas and Davao in Mindanao.

"These are the boatloads and truckloads of logs that are legally sourced. Medyo mainit ang mga truck na may troso. Our costs are going up tremendously. Nagkaroon ng maraming photo-ops dahil dito," he told reporters in a chance interview at the Kapihan sa Sulo Hotel.

As head of CFIP, he urged Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Edgar Aglipay and Environment Secretary Michael Defensor to investigate the "mounting reports of seizure and impounding of wood owned and intended for legitimate users like furniture makers."

"Heads should roll, not those of legitimate entrepreneurs, but those of illegal loggers," he suggested, adding that because of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)’s December 2004 total log ban policy, their $600-million industry has been subjected to a "raging shakedown" by law enforcers.

The "wanton searches, seizure, impounding and criminalization-by-publicity and by photo-op of entrepreneurs, most of whom have been granted the necessary permits" have risen, De Lange said, noting that they now have to deal with "various agencies and task forces."

"These harassments in highways, seaports and airports have become opportunities for pango-ngotong, on the strength of Defensor’s memorandum," he said. He also urged the DENR to allow timber harvesting in plantations while keeping the total log ban.

"The shakedown borne by the total log ban, the anarchy in highways and ports, and the mad dash by various agencies to milk as much publicity from it, has disrupted the production cycles of furniture makers," CFIP declared in a statement.

It likewise "decreased wood supply and endangers the short-term and long-term prospects of the furniture industry. The livelihood of 1.8 million workers and 12,500 furniture makers are put in grave danger."

"We call on Secretary Defensor to immediately amend his memorandum and allow timber harvesting in private plantations. For us, lifting the log ban in only two areas in Mindanao would not solve the problems of illegal logging and dwindling wood supply," De Lange said.

CFIP, according to him, is in "full support (of) a total log ban on timber harvesting in protected and endangered forests."

"A ban is most logical and most needed there," he said, but the group wants buri, rattan, vines, bark and fibers exempt from the ban.

"The CFIP is urging the government to immediately allow the resumption of selective and strictly-monitored harvesting in plantations and production forests. Selective logging would ensure continued supply of wood and forest-based products that need them."

Likewise the CFIP, or the furniture industry in particular, is "as committed as any Filipino citizen in ensuring sustainable forest management, in both responsible use and renewal of forests. For with dead forests, our industry will die also."