‘Hot’ logs seized in Kudarat

Koronadal City — Efforts to protect Sultan Kudarat’s forested areas gained headway anew as a joint team of policemen, Army soldiers and forest rangers seized more than 7,500 board feet of "hot" logs in the jungles of Columbio town.

Columbio Mayor Edwin Bermudez and Tacurong City community environment and natural resources officer (CENRO) Rene Rivera joined the team in trekking for more than four hours to the densely forested areas at the boundary of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Digos, Davao del Sur following reports that unidentified men had stockpiled illegally cut logs there.

The team was composed of men of the Army’s 39th Infantry Battalion led by 2nd Lt. Allan Martinez, 38th IB led by Cpl. Josel Deanon, 66th IB led by Sergeants Samuel Ferin and Rodney Grande, and the Columbio police led by SP01 Bernardo Lozada, and Tacurong forest rangers.

In his report to Jim Oliveros Sampulna, DENR-Central Mindanao executive director, Rivera said the illegally cut white lawaan and binuang logs were found scattered in thickly forested areas in Sitio Naot, Barangay Bantangan.

Rivera estimated the seized logs to be worth P142,500, at P19 per board foot.

Earlier, 1,556 board feet of "hot" timber were intercepted in nearby Barangay San Jose in Koronadal City.

In a related development, joint elements of the Coast Guard and the Navy’s Special Warfare Group seized an estimated P20 million worth of illegal logs on board two vessels in Misamis Oriental and Aurora, reports said. — With Christina Mendez and Arnell Ozaeta