Seized ‘hot’ logs rotting at Ecija military camp

CABANATUAN CITY — "Hot" logs worth millions of pesos confiscated since a decade ago are left rotting at the Fort Magsaysay military reservation in Palayan City, many of them infested by termites and no longer usable for school buildings, even for furniture.

This was revealed by Rafael Otic, provincial environment and natural resources officer, as he lamented that the seized logs kept at the impounding area at Fort Magsaysay, home of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division, are now virtually useless.

Otic told The STAR that he would ask that the "hot" logs, which include narra, a banned species, be condemned.

"Baka kahit palito ng posporo di na puwede (They may not even be usable to make matchsticks)," he said.

Otic, however, could not give rough estimates of the value and volume of the impounded logs. He said he has asked the community environment and natural resources office (CENRO), under Meliton Vicente, to conduct an inventory.

He said they could not dispose of any seized logs unless the Commission on Audit has inspected them, and that Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Elisea Gozun also has to be consulted on what to do with them.

Otic said even the vehicles used in transporting the logs that were also seized have bogged down, many of them now rusting.

The "hot" logs and the vehicles have been impounded since the early 1990s when Orlando Soriano was then the commanding general of the 7th ID.

At that time, Soriano waged a high-profile campaign against illegal loggers, resulting in several confiscations and the filing of cases in court.

Soriano later became the Army’s commanding general.