Estrada government protected illegal loggers – DENR

Forests in Mindanao, and also in Quezon and Aurora provinces, were pillaged and ravaged by illegal loggers operating under the "protection" of the former Estrada administration, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

In a report to Malacañang, the DENR said it is undertaking a two-pronged program of policy review and ground and aerial operations to stem the unabated denudation of the country’s precious forests by illegal logging.

The DENR said illegal logging was virtually abetted by the former Estrada administration through its issuances and relaxation of policies and regulations that caused the sudden and drastic increase in allowable cut timber from 1998 to 2001, which in effect, served as the "legal basis" for illegal activities nationwide.

The approved allowable cutting level rose from only 694,903 cubic meters in 1997 to 1,033,594 cubic meters in 2000.

"This cutting level is more than double the amount of production forests in the entire Region 7 (Central Visayas). Forests in Region 5 (Bicol) will only last three years, and in Region 6 (Western Visayas) four years if this cutting level is applied to these regions," the report said.

The DENR said the previous administration relaxed forest policies to encourage massive timber harvesting, resulting in an increase of 175 percent in the number of operating timber license agreements (TLAs) or timber concessions from four to 11.

The former Estrada administration allowed, through DENR Administrative Order No. 99-53, massive timber harvesting in natural forests using the Industrial Forest Management Agreement, which is primarily designed for tree plantations or wood production, not for harvesting in natural forests, the report said.

Because of the DENR order, a thickly forested, 1,400-hectare area in Davao Oriental has been subjected to clear-cutting, the department said.

The DENR said it has conducted ground and aerial surveillance operations in illegal logging hot spots in the Caraga region, Davao, Quezon and Aurora.

"(These) areas have been misdeclared, in connivance with DENR personnel, as inadequately stocked or degraded forests, which is allowed for clear-cutting, for conversion into tree plantations based on AO 99-53," the report said.

In the Caraga region, the DENR said, "We found the very government corporation tasked to manage natural resources extraction, the Natural Resources Development Corp., has been an instrument of logging scams."

In Aurora and Quezon, the previous administration issued a cutting permit to a 27,000-hectare supposed private land through Presidential Proclamation 233, which declared the area the Pacific Coast City Ecozone.

To be able to cut trees, the company that owned the land was issued a temporary environmental compliance certificate, the first time such a certificate was issued temporarily.