The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has confiscated almost 50,000 board feet of various undocumented wood products, amounting to P2.9 million, from a lumberyard in Meycauayan, Bulacan.
In a statement, DENR Secretary Lito Atienza yesterday said that a composite team of environmental law enforcers from the Environmental Law Enforcement Task Force swooped down on the Oriental Wood Processing Corp. (OWPC) Tuesday night and seized suspected illegally cut narra and assorted lumber products.
Specifically, Atienza said that some 1, 541 pieces of narra valued at P1.7 million (14,298 board feet) were discovered in the lumberyard of OWPC, as well as 2, 734 pieces of mixed construction wood, consisting of white lauan and tanguile, worth around P1.19 million (35,080 board feet).
OWPC is reportedly owned by a certain Agustin Uy. It is located in Barangay Bahay Pari in Meycauayan town.
“The confiscated products can fill three 10-wheeler trucks,” the DENR chief estimated.
Citing reports from ELETF executive director (Ret.) Gen. Pedro Bulaong, Atienza said the narra wood bore no DENR hatchet marks while the rest of the seized forest products showed signs that they were cut into smaller pieces using chainsaws, fueling suspicions that the wood products were illegally sourced from timber poachers.
According to the DENR, their field forestry officers use specially-designed hatchets as part of the agency’s monitoring mechanism to easily identify legitimately sourced timber products as opposed to those supplied by illegal loggers, who cut round logs into smaller pieces using chainsaws immediately after cutting trees.
Atienza said that owners of the OWPC failed to present documents for the wood products when asked by authorities, prompting the ELETF agents to issue corresponding apprehension receipts.
Atienza said that owners of the OWPC can be held liable for violation of Presidential Decree 705 or the Revised Philippine Forestry Code.
“Wood products sold by OWPC should only be bought from legitimate wood suppliers as stated in their permits issued by the DENR. The firm is a holder of lumber dealer permit which is to expire on Sept. 10, 2009, but its environmental compliance certificate for its kiln drying plant expired on March 19, 2004,” Atienza also said.
Atienza said that the action on OWPC stemmed from a tip received by ELETF agents that there were undocumented narra flitches being brought into OWPC’s compound.
On Jan. 19, two agents of the National Bureau of Investigation assigned to ELETF, profiled OWPC activities posing as buyers in search of narra.
The following day, elements of the ELETF managed to enter the compound using the two NBI agents as decoy and who were allowed entry into the compound to supposedly finalize their transaction for the purchase of the wood.