DENR exec in S. Kudarat gets death threats from poachers

Koronadal City — A community environment and natural resources officer (CENRO) has received death threats from timber poachers and suspected Abu Sayyaf members operating in the province’s coastal areas.

"May tumatawag sa akin at minsan pa nga in the middle of the night. Sinasabihan ako na magdahan-dahan sa ginagawa kong kampanya kontra timber poaching sa area ko (I get calls sometimes in the middle of the night. They tell me to slow down my campaign against timber poaching in my area)," said Madid Sabdullah, CENRO of nearby Kalamansig town.

In 2003, the DENR cited Sabdullah for his anti-illegal logging campaign in Central Mindanao.

He told The STAR that the callers threatened to kill him if he would not slow down his campaign in the hinterland villages of Palimbang, Lebak and Kalamansig towns.

Palimbang, where Abu Sayyaf members are reportedly hiding, is considered one of the illegal logging hot spots in Central Mindanao in terms of the volume of illegally cut forest products seized there.

Last year, more than 200,000 board feet of "hot" lumber were seized in Sultan Kudarat, mostly illegally cut in the hinterlands of Palimbang by Abu Sayyaf members hiding there.

Sabdullah, however, merely brushed aside the death threats, saying, "It’s part of our job (as) guardian of the region’s forests."

His wife, Bai Mariam Sabdullah, the DENR’s regional administrative officer, said she herself has received several anonymous calls telling her to advise her husband to stop his anti-illegal logging campaign.

Sabdullah said he started receiving threats in February 2004. The threats stopped last January but returned days after they recently apprehended 1,879 board feet of assorted hardwood species in Lebak town.

In his report to DENR-Central Mindanao executive director Jim Sampulna, Sabdullah said the "hot" lumber, valued roughly at P33,832 at P18 per board foot, was seized in the compound of a businessman.

Sabdullah said the intensified drive against timber poachers is in line with the order of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Michael Defensor.