Talisay foils entry of ‘illegal’ lumber

CEBU, Philippines - At least P500,000 worth of "illegal" lumber freighted on board a marine boat reportedly from Socorro Island, Surigao del Norte was seized yesterday dawn by members of Talisay City's Fisheries Sea Ecological Care (Fiseca) in Sitio Romahan, Barangay Dumlog.

Fiseca, the city's bantay dagat unit, identified the boat's captain as Danilo Lampad, 49, and his crew as Nesan Lampad, 18; Felix Lampad, 21; Ronil Balbareno, 34; Junior Gelsano, 42 and Rolando Angcob, 42. All six are residents of Socorro Island.

Fiseca team leader Dennis Reyes said they were patrolling the seas when they chanced to see two rubber boats chasing another boat in the waters of Talisay. They later found out that the two rubber boats were from the Special Warfare Group (SWAG), trying to apprehend the other with suspicion that it was carrying something illegal as it only ignored them when they told it to stop for check up.

Reyes said the SWAG members had to fire warning shots at the suspects until they were cornered. Once subdued, the SWAG team turned over the suspects to Fiseca.

Reyes said they informed Fiseca that the suspects dropped all their cargo at some secluded place.

Fiseca then brought the suspects and their boat to their headquarters in Barangay Cansojong and called up the Talisay City Police and the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro) representatives.

Gregorio Dela Torre, Fiseca chief, said that they are filing charges against the suspects for their failure to present legal documents for the wood seized. Cenro representative Jun Cañete said they will take custody of the confiscated lumber.

Angcob said they were in Talisay City to buy animal waste to be used as fertilizer and denied they had illegal lumber with them when interviewed by reporters.

For his part, city administrator John Yre de los Reyes said (if proven guilty), the suspects will face the consequences for entering into such illegal activity. He said the apprehension was a big accomplishment of  Fiseca and showed they were paying attention to the campaigns of Mayor Johnny de los Reyes. (FREEMAN)