Owners of hot lumber seized in Quezon hunted

MANILA, Philippines - Operatives of the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG) are tracking down the owners of the hot lumber – believed to be part of an illegal shipment to Taiwan – seized in Quezon last week.

PASG agents arrested a truck driver and three others for transporting illegally cut lumber in Atimonan, Quezon and “in the process halting the daily passage along the Bicol-Quezon routes of trucks loaded with suspected hot lumber,” the agency said in a statement.

The arrested suspects were identified as Teodoro Bacsa, Zaldy Aguinaldo, Joe Anthony Augusto and Romeo Landicho.

A PASG team led by Dominic Kabigting was inspecting a warehouse in nearby Tayabas town when an informant alerted them on a truck loaded with hot lumber to be smuggled out to Taiwan that would pass the highway in Atimonan, the agency said.

Kabigting and his men, backed up by the local police, intercepted the truck with license plate TYN 194 and driven by Bacsa who tried to bribe the arresting team.

When asked to produce the necessary documents for the lumber, Bacsa could not show any, prompting the PASG team to invite him and his three companions for questioning.

It was at this point when Bacsa handed a few P1,000 bills to Kabigting, who refused and handcuffed him and his companions on the way to the provincial prosecutor’s office.

Seized were 1,295 pieces of yakal, antipolo and red and white lawaan lumber, of which only 697 were covered by permits from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

PASG chief Undersecretary Antonio Villar Jr. commended his men for thwarting the smuggling of the hot lumber.