The Citizens’ Log Watch, an Agusan-based non-government organization, said in a statement that the "intruders" have not only knocked at Picop’s gates, but "have actually squatted inside its gates."
The NGO noted what it described as the "alarming" increase of dwellings at Picop’s Salvacion gate in Trento, Agusan del Sur, most of them having "fenced lands" inside the concession.
To prepare for their takeover of the concession, the illegal settlers earlier had positioned themselves at Roads 81 and 82 leading to the Salvacion gate, the Citizens’ Log Watch said.
The site, it added, eventually became a sitio under the Trento barangay of Sta. Maria, populated mostly by people from far-flung places like in Luzon and Iloilo in search of greener pastures.
For almost a year, the NGO said the illegal settlers have been conducting massive poaching within the concession. Recently, authorities seized 35 pieces of red lauan flitches and 56 pieces of sawn lumber, totaling 5,035 board feet, from areas on Road 74, it added.
Concerned citizens fear that if left unchecked, the only remaining forest Picop has managed to sustain for over 50 years would be gone is less than five years.
Joselito Soriano, president of the Picop union, blamed the situation on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources which, he said, is unduly delaying Picop’s automatic conversion, thus preventing it from carrying out its forest protection operations.