Timbers from Maguindanao del Norte forest seized
COTABATO CITY, Philippines — An inter-agency anti-illegal logging team confiscated 1,344 board feet of timber flitches in an operation near a tropical rainforest in Buldon town, Maguindanao del Norte, on Friday, September 26.
Bangsamoro regional officials told reporters on Saturday that the Lawaan timbers, cut into halves and worth no less than P60,000, were found piled in a grassy area in a secluded barangay in Buldon. The discovery was made by personnel of the Maguindanao del Norte Provincial Environment, Natural Resources and Energy Office, the Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office, and the Navy’s Marine Battalion Landing Team-6.
Municipal officials said the men watching over the illegally cut, supposedly protected dipterocarp tree species scampered away when they sensed the anti-illegal logging team—escorted by personnel of the MBLT-6 under the 1st Marine Brigade—approaching their location.
The suspects left behind their chainsaw and plastic containers filled with gasoline, according to municipal officials who supported the operation that led to the seizure of the forest products.
Maguindanao del Norte Gov. Tucao Mastura and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Chief Minister Abdulrauf Macacua told reporters on Saturday that they will embark on stricter environmental protection programs to safeguard the densely forested watershed areas in the adjoining towns of Buldon, Barira and Matanog from poachers.
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