Metro Infanta Foundation

May 26, 2007 15:25:00
Delfin Mallari Jr.
Southern Luzon Bureau

LUCENA CITY -- A Catholic Church-backed environmentalist group has
assailed what is said was the lackadaisical implementation by the
Department of Environment and Natural Resources of the “total log ban”
policy despite its declaration by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo right
after the 2004 flash floods and landslide in northern Quezon.

In an open letter to President Arroyo and the Filipino people, the Task
Force Sierra Madre (TFSM) based in Infanta, Quezon, recalled how the
President immediately declared a total log ban in the whole country after
the Nov. 29, 2004 tragedy in northern Quezon that killed hundreds and
destroyed millions of pesos worth of proerty.

"But we are saddened because despite our earnest effort to support your
declaration of total log ban policy, DENR has never implemented it
seriously," Fr. Pete Montallana, TFSM chair, said in the letter dated May
11, a copy of which was furnished the Philippine Daily Inquirer on
Saturday.

The TFSM asked President Arroyo to order a thorough investigation into
alleged malfeasance of local DENR officials in northern Quezon.

The group also recommended that while the probe is being conducted, a
preventive suspension order be issued against suspected DENR personnel
to avoid undue influence in the conduct of the investigation.

Montallana noted that they immediately formed the Metro Reina Multi
Stakeholders Forest Management Council (FMC) -- composed of the DENR,
local governments of Real, Infanta and General Nakar (Reina), Church
people, nongovernment and people’s organizations, military and other
stakeholders -- to support President Arroyo’s total log ban order.

"The target of this FMC for one year has been that there be no
cutting/no movement of timber outside Metro Reina, except finished products from drifted logs/fallen trees which passed the scrutiny of the council," the priest said in the letter.

However, Montallana lamented that two months ago, they finally realized
after so many experiences that DENR was interested more in defending
loggers and people in the wood industry.

"We hear that DENR personnel make big money but nobody is brave enough
to come out in the open. We even discovered that the corrupt DENR
personnel throughout the years have almost perfected a fool-proof system of environmental destruction," Montallana said. He did not elaborate.

The TFSM head cited several incidents detailing alleged questionable
acts by local DENR personnel that included anomalous bidding for
confiscated forest products, useless DENR checkpoints, and questionable loss of seized hot logs.

According to Montallana, the DENR has also indefinitely postponed the
meetings with the members of the "fact-finding team" created by DENR
Secretary Angelo Reyes on Nov. 15 last year to investigate the continuous
illegal logging activities in the Sierra Madre.

The TFSM leader also questioned the DENR approval of the transit to
Metro Manila of 15 ten-wheeler trucks of firewood in a matter of eight
days in September last year but without the signature of the requesting
party.

In another instance, Montallana recalled the military apprehended a
truck containing 1,928 board feet of assorted diphterocarp species. He
noted that the “Certificate of Transport Agreement” given by DENR
disclosed that the 182 pieces were semi-finished products but when members
of FMC inspected the lumber, they discovered that there was freshly cut
lumber inside.

In the adjudication hearing report to DENR-Region IV, the local
environment officials recommended the release of the apprehended items but
deliberately did not mention that freshly cut lumber was found inside the
truck.

On April 24, 2006, the military intercepted 102 pieces of narra and
yakal but these were later certified by DENR personnel based in Polilio
island as part of the retrieved/uprooted trees from mainland northern
Quezon towns that drifted to the island.

Montallana argued that narra and yakal species cannot drift because
they do not float.

"They submerge in water because their specific gravities are much
denser than water," he explained.

"And, more so, Reina is separated by Lamon Bay by about 22 km from the
municipality of Panukulan in Polillo island. The said lumber was
released by former DENR-Region IV chief Antonio Principe," the priest added.

The TFSM leader also lambasted the alleged inaction of the local DENR
personnel on their reports about continuous timber poaching in several
mountain villages of General Nakar.

"We have stopped reporting because it is futile. Logging will surely
stop when Sierra Madre in Quezon would be as bald as in Tanay,"
Montallana lamented.

Three DENR-Quezon chiefs have all been sacked due to failure to stop
illegal logging in Sierra Madre.

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