Bishop assails logging’s return to Sierra Madre
By Delfin Mallari Jr.
Southern Luzon Bureau
Last updated 05:44pm (Mla time) 08/13/2007
LUCENA CITY-- Northern Quezon Catholic bishop Rolando Tria Tirona has condemned the resurgence of illegal logging in the Sierra Madre mountain ranges and assailed the failure of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to stop the forest destruction.
“The Prelature of Infanta and I are very much concerned with the glaring apathy of the caretakers and defenders of our environment to the rampant cutting of trees in the Sierra Madre,” Tirona, head of the prelature, said in a text message to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, parent company of INQUIRER.net.
Tirona called on newly-designated Environment Secretary Jose “Lito” Atienza to finally put an end to the destruction of forests in the longest mountain ranges in the country.
According to Fr. Pete Montallana, chair of Church-backed environmentalist group Task Force Sierra Madre (TFSM), massive illegal logging in the Sierra Madre has returned.
“The national government could always initiate the planting of millions of trees to help rehabilitate the country’s denuded forest but the fact will still remain that illegal logging syndicates continue to operate with impunity because of the indifference of DENR personnel,” the priest said.
Last week, a government “informer” on illegal logging in the Sierra Madre narrated to the Inquirer the extent of forest destruction he had noted recently.
He said the truckload of illegally cut hardwood species recently seized by the military was concrete proof that illegal loggers had resumed operations.
“When I reached the Agos riverbank in the mountain village of Magsaysay, what were noticeable were tell-tale signs of a just-concluded operation of mobile saw mills. Wood slabs and saw dust were all around,” said the informant, who was instrumental in the joint DENR-military “Oplan Baykuran” operation last year.
“Oplan Baykuran” was a massive government anti-illegal logging plan implemented last year in the southern Sierra Madre, which resulted in the confiscation of illegally-cut logs and illegal cutting paraphernalia worth millions of pesos.
“I spotted new breed of ‘magbubulaog’ [haulers] pulling timber in the river. They are younger and stronger,” said the informer.
“My sources from the indigenous tribes confirmed my suspicions that it’s fiesta time again for the forest rapists. Illegal band saws have again sprouted like mushrooms. Definitely, illegal logging is now wrecking havoc again,” he said, shaking his head in disgust.
However, Antonio Diwa, community environment and natural resources officer based in Real town, refuted the resurgence of illegal logging.
“The reports on the supposed resurgence of illegal logging have no basis. They were all rehashed allegations,” Diwa said over the phone.
He said former environment secretary Angelo Reyes had issued a memorandum dated July 12 ordering a total log ban in the three towns of Real, Infanta and General Nakar.
He added that Quezon governor-elect Rafael Nantes had also issued the same directive upon assumption into office.
Montallana retorted: “What’s that memorandum? What’s that directive? Illegal logging never stopped. What we’ve been asking from Malacañang is to investigate the local DENR office. Another log ban proclamation will not help if the implementers could not be trusted.”
Pio Astejada, TFSM president, said: “[The] log ban is not being observed in Sierra Madre.”
Montallana recalled that President Glorioa Macapagal-Arroyo declared a “total log ban” policy right after the 2004 flashfloods and landslide in northern Quezon.
“But we are saddened because despite our earnest effort to support the total log ban policy, DENR has never implemented it seriously,” he said.
At least three DENR-Quezon chiefs have been sacked due to their failure to stop illegal logging in Sierra Madre.
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