Sawmill in Lanao town shut down over illegal logs

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines - - Security forces and environment enforcers shut down the operation of a sawmill and seized dozens of illegally cut logs in a town of Lanao del Norte, a military officer said Thursday.

Maj. Edgardo Amores, Spokesman of Army 1st Division, said the combined police and military troops from the 35th Infantry Battalion with the personnel of the City Environment and Natural Resources (CENRO) conducted the anti-illegal operations at the village of Malingao, Tubod town  before dawn Wednesday.

Amores said the operation led the security forces to the confiscation of the 27 round logs of different species believed to be illegally extracted from the mountains of Lanao province at the sawmill owned by a certain Eddie Solatorio.

The CENRO personnel, joining the operation, seized the logs after no pertinent documents were provided and shut down the sawmill operations.

Maj. Gen. Ricardo Rainier Cruz III, chief of the 1st Army Division, lauded the  operation, following the strict order of President Benigno Aquino III to enforce the ban of logging when flash floods spawned by typhoon Sendong inundated Iligan in Lanao and Cagayan de Oro City in 2011.