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Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Police identify city brys. hosting illegal logging
Police have identified five mountain barangays in Cebu City where illegal logging is reportedly rampant.
Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau (CIIB) Chief Pablo Labra II identified the barangays as Lusaran, Mabini, Agsungot, Paril and Cambinocot.
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña has tasked the CIIB to investigate.
Osmeña is suspecting that illegal loggers enjoy the protection of barangay officials and police assets since they always manage to avoid checkpoints.
In a press conference yesterday, Labra said most officials in these barangays are indifferent even if they already knew about the problem.
“Residents there, including the barangay officials don’t care. Illegal problem is becoming rampant,” Labra said.
Labra said illegal logging has become a source of income in some mountain barangays in Cebu City. Complicating the problem is the fact that these barangays are watershed areas, Labra said.
Labra plans to coordinate with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) 7 to give a seminar to officials and residents of the barangays about the effects of illegal logging.
Labra is also looking at a possible connivance between some DENR personnel and illegal loggers.
Labra’s team and operatives from the Vice Control Section intercepted last Sunday two truckloads of lumber in Barangays Cambinocot and Paril.
Arrested were Enrequito Cosido, brother of a former barangay captain of Cambinocot, and Noli Codizar, suspected illegal loggers.
Paril Barangay Captain Eliseo Jopia denied reports of rampant illegal logging in his barangay, particularly in Sitio Tag-ubi.
Jopia admitted that trees have been cut but only for building houses, not for commercial purposes.
Jopia said that last May 3, Osmeña visited his barangay for the inauguration of the barangay Hall and noticed that trees had been cut.
But the area in question is not part of Paril. It is in Sitio Tuble, Barangay Tag-Ubi, Compostela, Cebu, Jopia said.
Paril, Jopia said, is a boundary between Cebu City and Compostela. (JST)
(May 11, 2005 issue)
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