DENR: Ecija flashfloods not caused by illegal logging

CABANATUAN CITY – Officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources have claimed that flashfloods which swept villages in southern Nueva Ecija Thursday were not caused by illegal logging but by abnormal rainfall.

Arthur Salazar, DENR-Cabanatuan community environment and natural resources officer who holds jurisdiction over southern Nueva Ecija, said the floods that hit the towns of Gen. Tinio, San Leonardo, Gabaldon and Gapan City was not due to illegal logging even as felled logs and processed lumber were washed down from the mountains.

“With that amount of rainfall, naturally there would be heavy flooding,” Salazar said, disputing accusations that the flooding could be traced to illegal logging.

He said the logs washed away by floodwaters were old drifted logs, not newly felled logs. “They were impounded logs which were stocked for a long time because they were never transported,” he said.

Rafael Otic, DENR provincial environment and natural resources officer, told The STAR by phone, that illegal logging could not have been the cause of the floods.

Earlier, the sight of logs being washed away during flashfloods Wednesday night and Thursday triggered suspicions these were due to persistent illegal logging in Gen. Tinio, a perennial logging hotbed.

This was also the case when flashfloods killed over 100 people and displaced 1,000 families in Dingalan, Aurora in 2004.

Otic said that while Gen. Tinio Mayor Virgilio Bote has often been linked to illegal logging activities, there was no available evidence on hand to pin the latter down.

Senior Superintendent Ricardo Marquez, provincial police director, earlier said they would conduct a separate and independent investigation of the possible involvement of Bote in illegal logging.

He said he would dispatch his intelligence officer to help in the investigation of the incident.

Gov. Aurelio Umali had promised to investigate the cause of the flashfloods. – Manny Galvez