Aquino unlikely to entertain appeals on restricted logging

MANILA, Philippines –  President Aquino will stand by his decision to impose an indefinite and comprehensive nationwide restriction on logging despite opposition from the wood producers.

Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office Secretary Ricky Carandang said the President “feels strongly” about the issue and would unlikely entertain appeals to lift the restriction.

“I think there is no intention (for the President) to back off (from) this restriction on logging,” Carandang said over radio dzRB.

He stressed that the President was aware that his Executive Order No. 23 issued last Thursday would meet opposition from the wood industry but he mustered the political will to enforce it.

Carandang cited the need to implement it as part of the duty of the state to protect the environment.

“This is an investment in the country’s future and in our own environment,” he said, adding that the President has a “strong political will” not to withdraw EO 23.

He reminded the wood industry that the objective of the executive order was more on restriction on logging and not a total log ban.

Carandang said anybody from the wood industry who has an existing permit and no record of illegal logging activities could continue with their operation.

A law for everyone

However, mountain folks in the hinterlands of San Mariano town in Isabela province are apprehensive about the implementation of the law.

Although they welcome the logging ban, they said the implementors should enforce the prohibition on everyone.

Rolly Jimenez, a resident of Barangay Ibujan in the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountains, known as logging hub in Isabela, said small “carabao loggers” have long stopped their trade, not because of the frequent apprehensions by anti-logging task forces, but due to the dwindling trees in the forest.

He said only big-time mechanized loggers have the capability of going further inside the virgin forest to cut and haul trees.

Small loggers, on the other hand, cut trees in nearby mountainsides and have them drawn by carabao to the river where it is floated to the plains by the current, Jimenez explained.

“If the government wants to enforce a logging ban, so be it. It should, however, enforce it on everyone whether big or small,” he said.

Jimenez said big-time loggers make a fortune during calamities because the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has been giving special permit to gather “fallen trees” in the forest after the typhoon.

In turn, those who have permits deliberately conduct logging then declare the lumber as those they gathered because of the natural devastation.

Geronimo Cabaccan, DENR provincial officer, said that in most cases logs seized by anti logging task forces are left “abandoned” by the culprits, which explains the absence of respondents in most seizures they conduct.

Last November, Cabaccan said at least 204,543 board feet of confiscated lumber worth over P4 million were used for the rehabilitation and repair of various public facilities.

Nine illegal logging cases filed since 2001 are still pending with the Regional trial Court Branch 17 in the capital of Ilagan. The said Court has acquired jurisdiction over all illegal logging cases in the province. However, there have been no convictions.

In 1995, the DENR Region 2 launched “Oplan Jericho” to stop the worsening case of logging activities in Cagayan Valley where millions worth of lumber were seized by the agency.

Ironically, loggers were tapped by the agency to undertake the hauling and processing of the confiscated products. In turn, the loggers were paid in kind by being given portions of the lumber products they hauled.

P-Noy’s ‘political will’ put to test

The President ordered the logging moratorium to protect and stop the destruction of watersheds and river systems.

Under EO 23, the DENR was instructed to stop logging firms from cutting trees while it was in the process of reviewing all existing logging agreements.

The agency is tasked to immediately cancel the concessions of logging companies that have violated forest laws.

The DENR is also prohibited from issuing and renewing logging contracts and tree cutting permits in all natural and residual forests.– Raymund Catindig