Monday, July 14, 2008
4 men cutting lumber arrested in Samboan
FOUR people, including a 17-year-old boy, were arrested by Samboan town policemen Saturday night for allegedly cutting rare lumber.
They were accused of chopping round timber from Kunalum trees in the property of a certain Leonarda Catubig, 60, of Barangay Kulase, Samboan, Cebu.
Kunalum, according to a report submitted to the Cebu Provincial Police Office, is considered endangered and protected specie.
Samboan police identified the suspects as Julie Cuerda, 30; Pepsi Jabil, 40; Billy Cuerda, 48; and a minor.
The police came to know what the four did after receiving a message sent to their text hotline instructing them to block a motorcycle carrying sacks of illegally cut timber.
Roadblock
PO1s Keith Edward Baramida and Sherwin Sinag set up a roadblock and tried to stop the motorcycle that two persons rode as soon as they saw it.
Instead of heeding them, however, the motorcycle swerved away and sped towards the neighboring Ginatilan town.
Baramida and Sinag immediately boarded their patrol car and gave chase, catching up with the motorcycle two kilometers later.
The two men, identified as Julie and the teenager, were arrested and yielded two sacks full of round timber cut into one-meter strips.
Five sacks
They implicated Jabil and Cuerda, who were in Ginatilan town but were subsequently arrested.
The police seized a total of five sacks.
SPO1 Allan Almedilla of the Samboan Police Station said Catubig’s lot had no fence, which made it easy for the suspects to enter and cut off trees.
The suspects reportedly earned P1,000 for three trees. (MEA)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 14, 2008 issue)
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