August 16, 1999
Confirm illegal logging in Quezon National Park; 10 park personnel in ‘hot
water’
Some 10 DENR personnel working in the Quezon
National Park have a lot of explaining to do after the Directorate for
Intelligence and Special Task (DIST) confirmed reports of illegal logging.
In a report to Secretary Antonio H. Cerilles, Rolando
P. Cimafranca head of the DIST reported they found “26 pieces of big and
healthy dipterocarp trees intentionally cut with chainsaw and further gathered
and sawn into desired sizes of flitches and/or lumber undetected by Park’s
personnel.”
Cimafranca said the illegally cut trees, consisting
of lauan, tangile and bagtikan, had an average DBH of 74 cm. “Said tree
stumps,” he said, “ are located along the cemented trail at Mt. Pinagbanderahan,
Atimonan, Quezon Province or 84 meters from the national highway.”
Cimafranca also reported to Cerilles that “the daily
passage and/or entry of people inside the Park and through its thick forest
were not checked and monitored by the Park Superintendent (PAS).”
Among the other findings of the DIST which they reported
to Cerilles were:
1. There is no definite policy,
rules, regulations passed by PAMB which concerns camping and use of the
Park.
2. The Park personnel did
not monitor all types of vehicles passing through the Park.
3. Timber poachers are using
people particularly mendicants along the old zigzag road as their tipster.
In this case, these people who in turn provided information to these illegal
cutters are monitoring DENR personnel who are patrolling in the Park. Accordingly,
the cutting of trees is mostly done during heavy rainfall and hauling of
the flitches is made during nighttime. On the other hand, armed men using
chainsaws with improvised silencer to avoid detection did the cutting of
trees.
4. Forest occupants inside
the park and shanties along the diversion road are found using wood and
chain sawn lumber which are coming from the park’s resources.
At the same time, the DIST recommended to Cerilles
the relief of 10 personnel headed by the Protected Area Superintendent
(PASU) for gross and inexcusable negligence. Cimafranca noted that the
management and protection of the Quezon National Park is administered by
a Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) in accordance with Section 18,
DAO 25, series of 1992. Cimafranca said they were able to determine that
the ten park workers were culpable of glaring oversight for their inability
to carry out their assigned responsibilities.
Recommended for relief were the Quezon National Park
Superintendent, 7 forest rangers and 2 scalers.
At the same time, the DIST recommended the following:
(1) the immediate creation and activation of two mobile chokepoints in
the entrance and exit of the park, in addition to forest patrol works on
hot spot areas, to be manned by members of the multi-sectoral forest
protection committee, protected area management board (PAMB) of Quezon
National Park, and the provincial action group of the Quezon provincial
government; (2) augmentation of Park’s personnel, provision of radio and
vehicle; (3) strengthen the PAMB members; and (4) temporary closure of
the road (national highway) traversing the Quezon National Park if the
setting up of the recommended two mobile chokepoints is ineffective.
Last September 1998, six small-scale illegal loggers
in Infanta, Quezon were sentenced to a maximum period of six years imprisonment
for violation of Presidential Decree 705 or the Philippine Forestry Code
when local forestry officials of the DENR caught them on separate occasions
in possession of freshly-cut wood species declared by the DENR banned for
cutting.
Likewise during the same month, 14 local forestry
officers – 2 Community Environment and Natural Resources Officer (CENRO),
3 foresters, 5 forest rangers and 4 scalers - of the DENR in Southern Luzon
were relieved by Cerilles in connection with the discovery of illegal logging
activities in Real and Pagbilao, Quezon.
Quezon National Park covers some 983 hectares. Its
special features include virgin dipterocarp forests, winding roads, deep
ravines, rock formations and superb scenery. Notable species include dipterocarps,
hornbills, Philippine deer, forest kingfisher, spotted wood kingfisher
and Luzon little crow.
Meanwhile, P34 million worth of illegally cut logs
has been confiscated by the DENR over the past six-months as part of its
anti-illegal logging campaign nationwide.
In a report to Cerilles, the task force on anti-illegal
logging said the department's campaign led to the confiscation of 1,884,383
board feet of assorted logs and lumber.
The task force concentrated its campaign in the Bicol
region, Western and Northern Mindanao and the Cagayan Autonomous Region
and Growth Area (CARAGA) where illegal logging activities are prevalent.
In the Bicol Region, the task force's renewed campaign
in the Umiray and Agus rivers of Real, Quezon resulted in the seizure
of 547 flitches with total volume of 7,468 bd. ft. Last year's operation
in the two rivers yielded 612.50 cubic meters of logs worth P661,719.32.
From DENR
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