DENR nixes illegal logging yarn in Caraga

BUTUAN CITY —Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Regional Executive Director for Caraga Region Benjamin Tumaliuan debunked yesterday reports published in a national daily that "200 truckloads of logs pass through checkpoints daily in the Caraga Region."

"Records show that no official report with such volume of transported logs occurred in Caraga daily because only 20 truckloads pass to our checkpoints daily" Tumaliuan said.

In his letter to Rep. Prospero Pichay Jr. of the first district of Surigao del Sur, Tumaliuan said that the report of 200 truckloads of logs transported daily is unrealistic.

Tumaliuan was reacting to a press statement of a Regional Technical Director from the Office of the Undersecretary of Environment and Natural Resources Operations at a forum sponsored by the Philippine-German Community Forestry Project Quirino (CFPQ) recently regarding DENR checkpoints posing as "cashpoints."

Joint DENR-LGU checkpoint monitoring records show that from July to December last year only 5,203 trips were recorded with a corresponding volume of 107,726 cubic meters of logs transported.

"If this is translated into a per month basis, it will total to only 867 trips or an average of 28 trips of transported logs in the whole of Caraga Region daily with a volume of 1,260 cubic meters of transported logs daily," Tumaliuan told The STAR.

Residents near the Forest Monitoring Center in Barangay Tabon-Tabon at the boundary of Agusan del Sur and Agusan del Norte who are members of environmental groups debunked allegations of rampant illegal logging activities as their group is constantly monitoring such activities.

Residents said that an average of only 20 truckloads of logs or trips daily or about 690 cubic meters of logs pass through the Forest Monitoring Center. A check made by The STAR on the number of wood processing plants in Butuan City revealed that there are only seven of them existing out of the previous 15.

Based on records, all seven wood processing plants require about 1,260 cubic meters of wood daily but only 690 cubic meters of logs are supplied to them by local wood producers or suppliers.

"Which means Caraga’s wood supply is insufficient which is the reason why these firms import logs from other countries to meet their daily requirements," says Tumaliuan.

Caraga imports logs from Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Belgium and Hong Kong with a total volume of 27,070.361 cubic meters recorded from January to December last year.