P1.4-M ‘hot’ timber, narra products seized

SAN FERNANDO CITY, Pampanga — The few remaining narra trees in the diminishing forests of Central Luzon have remained targets of illegal loggers.

This, as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) here reported yesterday the confiscation of P1.4 million worth of "hot" timber and narra products in Carranglan, Nueva Ecija recently.

Leonardo Sibbaluca, the DENR-Central Luzon executive director, said a team headed by Nueva Ecija environment officer Rafael Otic and community environment officer Leovino Ignacio seized 4,253 pieces of assorted narra knock-down furniture components and 17 sacks of wood tiles worth some P500,000 at a residential compound in Barangay General Luna, Carranglan town.

Initial investigation showed that illegal loggers abandoned the narra products in the compound owned by one Antonio Bantawan after detecting the presence of DENR personnel at a checkpoint in Tayabo, San Jose City.

In another incident, two 10-wheeler trucks and one Isuzu truck loaded with some 20,000 board feet of "hot" lumber worth P500,000 were intercepted by a joint team of the DENR led by Rolando Suetos, the Army and the Cabanatuan City police.

Suetos also led a team that seized 15,000 more board feet of forest products worth P375,000, believed to have come from Aurora, in Gabaldon, Nueva Ecija. — With Ric Sapnu