Illegal logging charges filed vs Bataan mayor, cop chief

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga ,Philippines  – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has filed illegal logging charges against the mayor of Bagac, Bataan after some 1,000 board feet of confiscated lumber was found in his residence.

The DENR also filed administrative charges against Senior Inspector George Santiago, police chief of Bagac town, for the alleged unauthorized disposal of some 1,900 board feet of confiscated lumber under his custody.

The DENR said the case against Bagac Mayor Rommel del Rosario was filed before the prosecutor’s office in Balanga City, following six-month surveillance on him.

Forest Resources Conservation Division chief Fred Sadueste said he expects the Balanga prosecutor to remand the case against the mayor anytime.

DENR regional director Ricardo Calderon said the administrative case was filed against Santiago after an inventory revealed that seized lumber totaling some 1,900 board feet supposed to be under police safekeeping in a designated depository area in Bagac was missing.

In its report, the DENR-Bataan did not say whether the hot lumber found in the mayor’s residence was among those missing at the depository area.

Santiago insisted though that he donated the missing lumber to the Bagac tourism office and the local Bagumbayan barangay council.

Santiago’s superiors, however, promptly placed him under 10-day suspension.

The missing seized lumber was reported by Sadueste who led a five-man team that conducted an inventory of confiscated lumber in the depository area.

For the past four years, Sadueste said the DENR-Central Luzon has confiscated a total of 870,000 board feet of illegal forest products worth P29 million and has filed over 150 illegal logging cases before local courts.