P600T-worth of “hot lumber” confiscated in Samar town

MARABUT, SAMAR, Philippines – Close to 20,000 board feet of illegally cut lumber, with an estimated market value of P600,000, and four chainsaws, were seized by operatives of the 87th Infantry Battalion, the local police and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources at Barangay Tambalan of this town last Saturday.

DENR-Region 8 regional executive director Leonardo Sibbaluca led the anti-illegal logging operations in the same area where about 1,000 bd. Ft of “hot lumber” were also seized previously.

The chainsaws, confiscated from four men, were believed to have been used in the cutting of trees along Kilometers 12,14 to 16 of Tambalan.

The seized items were still being processed for evidences in the filing of criminal charges against the illegal logging suspects, who however fled to various directions upon sensing the arrival of the authorities in the area, leaving behind the pile of lumber.

“The illegal cuttings of trees were noticed by our forest guards, after typhoon Yolanda struck Leyte and Samar provinces. Many houses were destroyed and these people used the destruction as an alibi to justify illegal logging. We (at the DENR) could not let this happen and we have to enforce the law,” said the DENR-8 top official.

Sibbaluca told The Freeman that intelligence reports, reaching his office, stated that one of the high-ranked officials of this town was reportedly in connivance with the illegal logging activities here since. This has yet to be verified first, complete with evidences, he however said.

The seized “hot lumber” were temporarily kept at the camp of the 52nd Infantry Battalion at Barangay Cantaba of Basey town, also in Samar.