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Tuesday, November 04, 2003
Army-DENR team seizes P3M in hot logs
By Louie B. Oranda
BUTUAN CITY---A composite team composed of government troops and employees of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Agusan del Norte office seized around 1,215 board feet of illegally logs of various types worth P3 million.
Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (Penro) Chief Rosendo Asunto said they received reports from an unnamed source about logs from Agusan del Sur being transported across the Agusan river.
The unnamed informant said the logs cache were accompanied by armed men. Asunto said they don't know whether the men are ordinary civilians or government agents.
Asunto then called up Col. Ronald Albano, commander of the 30th Infantry Batallion, and together they planned the operation to catch the loggers red-handed.
Last Sunday at 5 p.m., authorities spotted the armed men riding on the logs that were being carried by the strong current. Some of the armed men didn't wait until they reach dry land but swam across the river.
The soldiers and Penro personnel waited along the sides of the river at their monitoring post in Barangay Bit-os before apprehending the men and seizing the logs.
The logs are said to come from Loreto, San Luis and Talacogon in Agusan del Sur.
Asunto admitted that while the distance between the two provinces are guarded by many checkpoints, the logs still managed to pass through some of them and was only stopped in Butuan City.
Asunto said they have yet to identify the owners of the logs and added they still have to investigate this incident further to identify the loggers.
"Kadaghan nami nakasakmit ug mga kahoy nga manglutaw lang dinhi sa suba nga walay moangkon nga tag-iya. Naningkamot gyud ni sila nga makalusot sa pagtoo nga walay taga DENR nga magbantay sa ilang ilegal nga kalihukan." (We have confiscated a lot of logs near the river. No one is claiming ownership of the logs.)
They tried to sneak in the logs in the belief that there are no DENR personnel monitoring their illegal activities, Asunto said.
(November 4, 2003 issue)
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