DENR asks LGUs to go after illegal loggers

CEBU, Philippines - All local government units, including Cebu City, have been requested by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to create their own anti-illegal logging task force.

The national anti-illegal logging task force chaired by DENR Secretary Ramon Paje has passed a resolution calling for the creation of local task forces to protect our forests from the illegal loggers or Kaingineros.

The DENR regional executive directors were also ordered to establish their task forces that will work hand-in-hand with provincial governors or the regional directors of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

 The municipal and city mayors, through their respective barangay captains, are tasked to conduct upland monitoring to ensure that no illegal logging, kaingin and other forms of forest destruction are taking place within their jurisdiction.

Cebu still has public forests being guarded by the DENR, but the agency’s limited number of forest guards cannot protect the entire forests at one time.

Paje reminded the local officials to exercise extra vigilance to protect the forests in their territory.

Paje said local chief executives who will ignore this task might be facing sanctions or possible suspension to be filed by no less than DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo, who is also a member of the five-man National Anti-Illegal Logging Task Force (NAILTF).

 Aside from the DENR and DILG secretaries, the other members of NAILTF included National Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Philippine National Police Chief Raul Bacalzo, and Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Ricardo David Jr. 

 Some farmers in the hinterlands of Cebu destroy parts of the forests and convert these areas as their farms. (FREEMAN)