Senate OK of total log ban bill pressed

A former president of the Chamber of Furniture Industry in the Philippines pressed yesterday for the immediate Senate approval of the total logging ban bill authored by Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr.

Architect Greg Timbol III, in a statement, said the Camiguin killer flash floods should be the last "wake-up call" for Congress to move for the approval of Senate Bill 1695 or the proposed Sustainable Management of Forest Resources Act.

Timbol said logging, legal or illegal, and kaingin (slash-and-burn farming) should be totally stopped before more people are killed and more dwellings, property and livelihood are wasted.

"Agricultural lands could be more productive should our forests be rehabilitated, making us self-sufficient with extra to export and not what is currently happening which is wasting our much-depleted dollar reserves," he said.

Timbol urged non-government organizations, civic, business and professional groups, the youth and farming folk to press Congress to adopt "a positive and purposeful action."

He urged President Arroyo to certify SB 1695 as urgent.