10 get prison terms for illegal logging

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Seven persons, including four women,  were meted up to 17 years imprisonment in Tarlac while another three were sentenced to six years in jail in Bulacan after regional trial courts found them guilty of illegal logging and violating other forestry laws.

In his decision,  Judge Arsenio Adriano of the RTC Branch 64 in Tarlac City said the seven were found "guilty beyond reasonable doubt" of violating Section 68 of the Revised Forestry Code of the Philippines with punishments for qualified theft."

Regidor de Leon, executive director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Central Luzon, identified the seven as Myrna Rubino, Maximo Rubino, Shane Anthony Albano, Larry Blanco, Nestor Pano, Danny Tabuli, Leonardo Raguingan, Emily Ulep, Rita Santos, Mariano Rabana, and Cely Santiago.

Adriano sentenced the seven to a minimum of 10 years and one day to a maximum of 17 years and four months and one day plus a one-year jail term for every P10,000 in excess of P22,000 worth of the stolen items, not exceeding 20 years.

De Leon said the seven were initially arrested by the  DENR forest protection team led by Avelino Bacallo in Barangay Amacalan in Gerona, Tarlac on Oct. 5, 2003 while they were boarding a truck loaded with 2,500 board feet of narra flitches worth P250,000 which they hid under sacks of rice husks and rice bran.

He said that before their arrest, they were already included in the DENR watch list of illegal loggers.

The court also ordered the forfeiture of the narra flitches and truck used by the illegal loggers in favor of the government.

In Malolos, Bulacan, RTC judge Renato Francisco also sentenced Eugenio Salvador Tigas, Rodolfo Angeles, and Celso Solargo Selgas to a maximum of to six years prison term after they were found in possession of lumber with a total volume of 3,160 board feet worth P12,000.