P1.6-M narra lumber seized from P’panga furniture maker

GUAGUA, Pampanga — Violence nearly broke out yesterday after workers of a furniture factory in Barangay Betis here blocked personnel of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) tasked to confiscate some 16,000 board feet of narra worth about P1.6 million from the factory.

Regidor de Leon, the DENR’s Central Luzon executive director, said the workers of the Sta. Clara Multipurpose Cooperative, a known furniture maker, barricaded their factory with two jeeps, old tires and three truckloads of sand to prevent the raiding team of Task Force Kalikasan, headed by retired Maj. Gen. Alfonso Dagudag, from confiscating the narra lumber.

Tension was defused and the narra lumber was eventually confiscated after negotiations led by Chief Superintendent Rowland Albano, Central Luzon police director; Vice Mayor Ricardo Rivera and Chief Inspector Roque Paredez, the municipal police chief.

DENR personnel hauled off the narra lumber in three six-wheeler trucks secured by police crowd control squads.

De Leon said member-workers of the cooperative and one Chris David owned the narra lumber which was supposed to be delivered to a consignee in Quezon City.

He said the cooperative members failed to produce documents legitimizing their possession of the narra lumber believed to have come from the forests of Tabuk, Kalinga.

Charges have been filed against David and the cooperative for alleged violation of Section 68 of the Revised Forestry Code, De Leon said.

Since 1987, he said the DENR has classified narra as a premium hardwood species whose harvest for furniture and lumber has been strictly regulated and could only be approved in writing by the DENR secretary.

He cited reports that since the imposition of the total logging ban last December, the price of narra lumber has shot up from P70 to P100 per board foot.

Local furniture makers are known to use narra for their furniture exports, DENR forestry director Ricardo Calderon said.

He said furniture pieces made by Betis craftsmen have found their way to mansions of Hollywood celebrities and even royal families abroad.

"Furniture makers in Betis have shown marked preference for narra because of its texture, strength and color and which commands a higher price in both the local and international markets," he said.

Calderon said there are at least 8,000 furniture workers in Betis whose population is about 10,000.

Earlier, the Chamber of Furniture Industries of the Philippines (CFIP) said furniture makers were losing P41 million a day from lost export revenues since the government imposed the total logging ban following the devastating landslides that hit Aurora and Quezon late last year. The landslides were blamed on forest denudation.

The CFIP said the wood-producing and furniture industries employ more than two million Filipinos and account for over P20 billion in investments.

Calderon said the country needs two to 2.5 million cubic meters of industrial round logs annually to satisfy local demand and export commitments for wood furniture.

DENR records show that the export market for "high-value" furniture brings in some P21 billion in revenues to the government.