P1.4-M ‘hot’lumber seized in Quezon

Illegal loggers are at it again in the Sierra Madre mountain ranges.

Government environmental law enforcers seized last Wednesday more than 50,000 board feet of illegally cut lauan lumber estimated to be worth P1.4 million in Infanta, Quezon.

Undersecretary Roy Kyamko, deputy head of the National Anti-Environment Crime Task Force, said they caught two men and a woman in the act of loading part of the "hot" lumber into a truck in Barangay Tunguhin.

Kyamko said the three, identified as Emma Garibay, Lito Caro, and Nilo Ungriano, are now under interrogation as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) tries to determine the owners or recipients of the illegally cut lumber.

Kyamko said they also impounded three eight-wheeler trucks allegedly being used to transport the "hot" lumber.

"We have reasons to believe that the confiscated lumber came from the Sierra Madre," he said.

According to Kyamko, a joint team of the task force and the Army acted on information that illegally cut lumber would be transported via the Agos River.

Kyamko said the first batch of "hot" lumber, totaling 4,135 board feet, was seized in Barangay Balungaw in Infanta town.

Follow-up operations yielded 16,000 board feet in Sitio Minoson, Barangay Tunguhin, 4,812 board feet in a warehouse in Barangay Kololoron, and 26,000 board feet in the Agos River in Real town.