DENR bans transport of timber from ARMM through Bukidnon

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has banned the transport of timber products from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) through the Sayre Highway in Bukidnon.

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Elisea Gozun said the ban is in line with the logging moratorium in Bukidnon which one of her predecessors, Fulgencio Factoran, imposed in 1990.

The transport ban was stipulated in an agreement which Gozun and her ARMM counterpart, Kabuntalan Emblawa, signed last Aug. 3.

Under the agreement, all documented forest products from the ARMM will no longer be allowed to be transported through Bukidnon on their way to Cagayan de Oro City in Misamis Oriental or Iligan City in Lanao del Norte. Instead, they have to be transported through Lanao del Norte or by sea.

Until last week, trucks carrying timber products from two logging firms operating in the ARMM passed through seven towns in Bukidnon to reach lumber dealers in the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan.

Under the agreement, timber products from the ARMM can only be transported to authorized loading and off-loading points, including the cities of Bacolod, Iloilo, Roxas, Dumaguete, Mandaue, Ormoc, Zamboanga, Pagadian, Cagayan de Oro, Iligan, Davao and General Santos, the towns of Sogod and Baybay in Leyte and Catbalogan in Samar, and the Manila North Harbor.

DENR records show there are two existing timber licensees in Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao, covering a total area of 42,915 hectares.

The two licensees are the Timber Industries of the Philippines, with timber license agreement No. 110 issued in 1980 for 22,650 hectares and will expire this December; and the Cotabato Timberland Co., whose TLA, issued in 1980 for 20,265 hectares, will expire in December next year.