‘Locate illegal logging site in Quezon’

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Angelo Reyes ordered Region 4-A (Calabarzon) officials of his department to seize all illegally harvested logs and forest products in Quezon and locate their source.

This, after non-government groups revealed that illegal cutting of trees is back in a portion of the Sierra Madre mountain range in Quezon.

Reyes directed the Region 4-A officials "to submit a well-validated report within 72 hours" and closely coordinate with Task Force Sierra Madre-Infanta (TFSM-I), which exposed the renewed illegal cutting of trees.

A 12-man team of environment and natural resources officers from Real, Quezon and Rizal has been deployed to carry out Reyes’ order.

Checkpoints have also been set up as logs and forest products from Quezon are reportedly being transported to furniture-makers in Rizal through Tanay town.

According to the DENR, no timber harvesting permits in Quezon’s natural forests have been issued, thus the cutting of trees is considered illegal, said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

The DENR recently cancelled tenurial permits, including industrial forest management agreements, industrial tree plantation lease agreements, socialized industrial forest management agreements and community-based forest management agreements, in eight regions, effectively banning logging in these areas.

The TFSM-I has released a video footage showing freshly felled trees right in the bosom of the Sierra Madre mountain range.

Three Agta tribesmen and a representative of the Infanta prelature’s Social Action Center took the video footage in the Quezon town of General Nakar, which is located at the foot of the Sierra Madre.

Massive logging in the Sierra Madre was blamed for the killer landslides and flash floods that struck Quezon and Aurora in November 2001, killing nearly a thousand people.