Army unit relieved for 'conniving' with illegal loggers

GEN. TINIO, Nueva Ecija - Ten Army soldiers composing an elite anti-illegal logging task force at the 2,018-hectare Mina-lungao National Park here were pulled out last Thursday amid complaints that they were allegedly conniving with illegal loggers.

A new 20-man Army team led by Lt. Col. Benito Villareal replaced the Task Force Sagip Likas Yaman of Capt. Jose Gungona, who was reassigned to the Alpha Company of the 56th Infantry Battalion.

Lt. Col. Eduardo del Rosario, chief of civil-military operations of the 7th Infantry Division based at Fort Magsaysay, said Brig. Gen. Ernesto Carolina, 7th ID commanding general, ordered the task force's relief.

Del Rosario said the move would give a fresh start to the joint campaign of the military and Department of Environment and Natural Resources to rid the national park of illegal loggers.

Since a decade ago, Task Force Sagip Likas Yaman has been trying to drive away illegal loggers from the Minalungao National Park -- part of a vast forest covering 13,482 hectares -- but has been unsuccessful because the loggers would resort to "mob rule" to prevent soldiers from confiscating their haul.

Del Rosario admitted that the relief of Gungona's team was prompted by several complaints that its members were allegedly in cahoots with illegal loggers.

One complainant, in a handwritten letter dated Feb. 25, alleged that illegal loggers had bribed task force members in exchange for the free passage of logs transported by floating them down the Minalungao River.

Another complainant, who claimed to be a resident of Barangay Rio Chico, complained that Gungona's group recently apprehended a six-by-six truck loaded with illegally cut logs, owned by one Eduardo Factor, a known illegal logger. But the seized logs were later allegedly released for unknown reasons.