SARANGANI — Authorities on Monday seized 25,000 board feet of lumber poachers tried to smuggle from a protected forest land to a buyer in Maitum town in Sarangani.
The lumber got intercepted by policemen, soldiers and personnel of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Barangay Gawan in Maitum, loaded on a truck and ready for transport to the town center.
Superintendent Romeo Galgo Jr., information officer of the Police Regional Office in Region 12, said the team that carried out the anti-illegal logging operation also impounded the truck carrying the lumber.
Galgo said the group also found a big bulk of undocumented lumber piled inside the nearby residential yard of spouses Taha and Edna Tuandato, who are involved in illegal logging activities in watershed forest lands in Maitum.
Galgo said the recovered forest products are now in the custody of DENR’s office in Sarangani province.